First, I was sorry to read about your son incident. I know how frustrating it is to stand in front of a brick wall.
My suggestion, based on some unfortunate experience is to cc the Director of customer care sitting corporate office - that usually brought me great results.
Here's a link to some important e-mails you'd probably need to cc on your e-mail:
http://onyoursi.de/wiki/travel/airli...ntal-airlines/
I hope that the information here is up-to-date.
Please let us know how this was taken care of.
Good Luck!