SHEILA A. MATHEWS :::
Zachaury Sevenstar, the six-year-old little boy critically-injured in a Saturday morning fire, has succumbed to his injuries.
“He was actually pronounced at 12:10 p.m. by Dr. Clardy. He was declared brain dead at that time,” said Spalding County Coroner Sonny Foster.
Little Zachaury’s cause of death was smoke inhalation with thermal burns.
“What they had to do and the reason it took until this afternoon – his biological mother lived in Oklahoma. She got on a plane today and came to Georgia – to Atlanta – and went to Augusta, and produced the papers that stated she was the legal guardian and mother of that child. She had the papers to prove it,” he said. “The mother in Oklahoma was still the legal blood kin of the child and she had to make the final decision before I would release the body.”
Foster said the family has made the decision to donate Zachaury’s organs to others in need.
“They (his mother and caretakers in Georgia) both agreed they wanted to do donor procedures,” Foster said. “We had to wait until everything was in order, though. They would not release the body to Life Link or anybody until I released the body after getting her permission.”
Foster said he encourages organ donation whenever possible, and is glad Little Zachaury’s family chose to move forward with this selfless act.
“I always tell people if something good can come out of something so bad, it won’t have been in vain,” Foster said. “That’s a good thing that something good can come out of it. They are going to do harvest with him tonight. The family is staying over with him tonight, and they’ll likely be coming back to Griffin tomorrow.”
Final arrangements for little Zachaury Sevenstar and Christie Lewis, the 44-year-old woman who also perished as a result of the fire, will be handled by Conner-Westbury Funeral Home.
