A treacherous diabetic road: Jill Bird’s story

Diabetes is a chronic health condition that lasts a lifetime and often results in secondary health problems. From Type 1 to Type 2 diabetes, it’s essential to be aware of the health risks you are pre-disposed to with a diabetes diagnosis. Burn and Reconstructive Centers of America (BRCA) is dedicated to shedding light on this […]
Read More

Reconstruction after gunshot restores veteran’s ability to hold her baby

Pregnancy comes with several mental and physical challenges. From fear and excitement to hormonal changes and medical conditions, there can be a lot of stress on the mother and father. For 27-year-old Cheyenne Walker, her pregnancy came as a welcomed surprise. No one could have guessed that she would be fighting to keep her unborn […]
Read More

Field herper, Cary Howe, discusses the facts and myths of venomous snake bites

Cary Howe isn’t your average hobbyist. He is what is known as a field herper. Like bird watchers, field herper’s search for and sometimes photograph reptiles and amphibians, including salamanders, frogs and venomous and nonvenomous snakes. With 20 years of experience handling and photographing reptiles, Howe has encountered thousands of snakes without incident, until recently. […]
Read More

Mechanic burned after gasoline fumes ignited thanks Las Vegas burn surgeons for restoring his mobility

Gasoline fires are unlike any other thermal burn mechanism. Once the liquid accelerant or the fumes catch fire, the flames can be quick to spread and difficult to extinguish, and if the gas splashes onto anyone nearby, severe burns can happen in a matter of seconds. “Stop, drop and roll doesn’t work if you’re saturated […]
Read More

BRCA publishes Spring 2022 edition of “Burn Care Commentary”

Click here to download the Summer 2022 edition of Burn Care Commentary. If you would like a printed copy of the publication, please email us at info@burncenters.com.
Read More

From 14 months to 47 years old: a lifetime of burn care comes to a close

It was the late 1970s. Anna Dickinson’s mom was cooking dinner in their home in Augusta, GA, when she was startled by a loud crash. Her daughter, fourteen-month-old Dickinson, had reached up and pulled the hot tea kettle off the stove. Scalding hot tea covered her head, dripping down her brow, while she sat there […]
Read More

In retrospect: A fourteen-year reflection of burn care and recovery from burn survivor Connor McKemey

Burn care is a relatively new specialty as far as healthcare goes. Each patient treated at Burn and Reconstructive Centers of America (BRCA) sets new expectations for recovery and redefines the possibilities of life after the burn center as they push the boundaries of burn care. Burn survivor Connor McKemey has been defying clinical odds […]
Read More

Seven-year-old baseball player scores homerun after hand reconstruction

After the Mendoza family’s dog, Misty, suffered a severe injury and infection crawling under their backyard fence, they took her to the vet and did what they could to nurse her back to health. On April 30, 2021, less than a week into their pet’s recovery, seven-year-old Gideon Mendoza went outside to feed the chickens […]
Read More

Scotti Roberts: Burn survivor, peer supporter, LPN and future RN

Eight-year-old Scotti Roberts grew up living the small-town-USA life in Fitzgerald, GA. In a town of roughly 9,000 people, Roberts lived with her grandparents in a pecan orchard. After dinner on Oct. 18, 2005, Roberts and her family went to the orchard to a five-foot hole where they burned their pecan branches. Playing, Roberts threw […]
Read More

A mother is thankful to have her son returned to her after getting severely burned on cross-country camping trip

For the first time in then fourteen-year-old John David Thomason’s life, he was going on a cross-country fishing and camping trip deep in the Wyoming wilderness. On July 1, 2021, only a day into the trip, he and his campmates were cooking over an open fire and playing bocce ball when Thomason miss-stepped and fell […]
Read More

Professional rodeo cowboy thanks surgeon who saved him from amputation

Memorial Day weekend 2017, Justin Babineaux was competing in team cattle roping in his hometown of Sulphur, Louisiana. He and his horse were a powerful duo on the verge of a winning streak. But unfortunately, rodeos are a fast-paced, unpredictable sport where anything can happen in just a matter of seconds and, as Babineaux went […]
Read More

The keys to success: pianist learns to play again after near hand amputation

Andrew Connelly was driving home from choir practice late at night on Dec. 5, 2018, when he hit a guardrail on a South Carolina dam, and his car burst into flames. Connelly, a classically trained concert pianist and middle school teacher, had been working part-time as the choir director at his church before suffering that […]
Read More