Crestwood Victim Celebrates Charges Before New Seizure Strikes

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When Danny Fleming, 21, of south suburban Crestwood, sat down to talk about the first criminal charges stemming from a long running investigation into the village's tainted water system, he imparted a sense of vindication.

"After going through all that I felt very proud about what I've done," Fleming said during the interview. 

What he did was survive.

Fleming's liver was ravaged by cancer liver when he was a kid, and he was forced to undergo a life-saving transplant at the age of 7.

His parents blame the village's tainted water, which the Illinois EPA determined to contain elevated levels of vinyl chloride, a known cancer-causing agent.

"It's unconscionable to know that the people in your town are drinking water that is tainted and because of money?" Danny's mother Mary Fleming said.

Upon hearing of the charges, Mary said it was a good day. But hours after he spoke with NBC, it turned badly.

Mary Fleming said her son was rushed to the hospital Friday after being  stricken with an acute case of seizures.

Danny started getting the seizures -his mother says- as a by-product of all the chemotherapy he endured after contracting cancer. He also now suffers from short term memory loss and a substantial loss of hearing.

Mary Fleming says Danny is "topped out on meds for seizures right now" and will like stay at the hospital overnight. She characterized his health as "not great at this point."

If it weren't for the tainted water, Danny's life may have been different.

"Right now I might be going to college and stuff, and I might even have my own place," he said. 

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