Breathing pure oxygen under pressure is an unproven treatment for children with severe brain damage, and Florida medical regulators have no obligation to pay for it, a West Palm Beach appeals court ruled Wednesday, dealing a serious blow to the family of a Broward boy who nearly drowned.

The Fourth District Court of Appeal upheld a decision by the state Agency for Health Care Administration declaring hyperbaric oxygen an experimental treatment for people who suffered brain damage after being deprived of oxygen. AHCA administers the state's Medicaid program.

''The agency determined that there is no evidence that hyperbaric oxygen treatment is an effective, medically necessary treatment for this patient's condition,'' said the opinion, signed by judges Dorian K. Damoorgian and Larry A. Klein and Chief Judge George A. Shahood.

A spokeswoman for AHCA did not respond to a request for comment.

The decision means the parents of Miguel Angel Lorenzo will have to continue paying for the oxygen treatments themselves. Miguel, 2, fell into his family's swimming pool over the Memorial Day weekend a year ago and suffered catastrophic brain damage.

His parents, Yusimy and Juan Carlos Lorenzo of Davie, have given Miguel 144 treatments since beginning the extremely expensive program, Juan Lorenzo said. They will continue paying for them, he said, because they believe his condition is improving.

Lorenzo said that since the hyperbaric treatments began, Miguel has started to track moving objects with his eyes, and is blinking and making vocalizations to his parents -- all things he could not do in the aftermath of his near-drowning.

Michael Brownlee, a certified legal intern with Florida State University's Public Interest Law Center, which handled the case, said lawyers are considering an appeal to the Florida Supreme Court.

''We are really disappointed by the ruling,'' Brownlee said.

``It's been completely heart-wrenching. The family found a treatment that worked wonders for their son, but, unfortunately, Medicaid and now the Fourth District Court of Appeal feel it doesn't help his condition. We know it helps his condition.''

Join the discussion

Note: If this is your first time using our NEW commenting system, you will have to LOG OUT and then LOG BACK IN.

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.CommentBody@

@Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@