Lorenzo Odone, of 'Lorenzo's Oil' film, dies at 30

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Lorenzo Odone, whose illness prompted a determined effort by his parents to save him and inspired the Oscar-nominated film "Lorenzo's Oil," has died, US media reported Saturday. He was 30.

His father, Augusto Odone, told The Washington Post that Odone died Friday at his home in Virginia, of aspiration pneumonia.

Odone had been severely disabled by adrenoleukodystrophy, or ALD, a disease which causes genetic mutations that break down the neurological system. The disease usually results in brain failure and death, but Lorenzo lived 20 years longer than doctors predicted.

Augusto Odone told the daily that his son's death "was not the result of the disease" but the aspiration pneumonia, which can result from a foreign object or material...