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 […]
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DIY gone wrong: burn surgeons save woman’s hands after wood fracking incident

WARNING: Contains graphic images of electrical burn injury. Fifty-year-old Mary Calhoun suffered a severe electric shock at her home in Polk County, TN, when a DIY craft went horribly wrong. Inspired by social media, image-sharing sites and online tutorials, Calhoun decided she wanted to try a trend made popular through the internet: wood fracking, also […]
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A history of healing: Long-term wound care follows burn injury

Charles Potter has to be careful. The scar tissue that wraps his lower legs, his anterior trunk from the waist up and half his back, isn’t as pliable as uninjured skin. It doesn’t heal as easily. A simple scratch can become a tear that can progress into an infected, chronic wound. It’s a battle the […]
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Burn survivor finds strength in helping others

Shawnahan King was at a friend’s house in Homestead, FL, in 2018 when he noticed the fire was beginning to die in the outdoor firepit. Surrounded by friends and family, including his eight-year-old son, King went to re-ignite the fire when his body burst into flames. “Like a thousand other times in my life, I […]
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Life on the line: recovering and adapting after double amputation

Wayne (Barry) Johnston had been a lineman for 20 years when on June 27, 2006, he was electrocuted while working a job in Mississippi. “All I know is that somehow when I was working on a line that the power surged,” Johnston said. “The [electrical] line was supposed to be dead, the way I was […]
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Three-year-old saved from grease fire injuries thanks to work from BRCA burn surgeons

At just three years old, Malik (MJ) Bryant suffered burns on more than 54% of his body when a grease fire ignited in his home on July 18, 2019. What was a routine day for parents Elijah Turner and Precious Christian proved calamitous when cooking grease—settled in the eye of the stove—immediately ignited after it […]
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Haitian woman flown more than 1,000 miles to receive lifesaving burn care following propane explosion

In the early morning hours of March 8, 2021, Guerda Fontaine was prepping lunch boxes for her two children when turning on the propane tank engulfed her in flames. “Upon the propane exploding, the house itself exploded, the windows exploded, everything just exploded,” said Mrs. Fontaine. “I just heard the explosion and didn’t really understand […]
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EMT recovers from jet ski explosion with help from burn team

Megan Hawthorne and her boyfriend, Braydon Nunnery, were pulling a kneeboard behind a jet ski on a river in Florida on Aug. 9, 2020, when the rope got stuck in the propeller. The couple shut off the engine and managed to swim the stalled jet ski to the nearest sandbar before flagging down a friend […]
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Kyrie Gilchrist

Eighteen-month-old Kyrie Gilchrist wailed on the floor. His body was covered in hot grease. “My husband and I both ran over to where the stove is, and that’s when we noticed that he had pulled the frying pan down on himself,” said Kyrie’s mom, Natalie Gilchrist. Originally from Virginia, the Gilchrists’ were visiting family in […]
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BRCA publishes Summer 2021 edition of “Burn Care Commentary”

Click here to download the Summer 2021 edition of Burn Care Commentary. If you would like a printed copy of the publication, please email us at info@burncenters.com.
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A Nurse Educator’s Journey to a New Normal: Surviving SJS/TEN

On January 25, 2020, Karen Worthy, Ph.D., MPH, RN, CNE, thought she had the flu. Fever, cough, and muscle aches were all symptoms she experienced when she had the flu the previous year, except this time was very different. As the day progressed, she began presenting other worrying symptoms that indicated not only a possible […]
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“Let me tell you about the good that has come out of it.”

Kidnapped and set on fire, Stacy Frank was left to die. “I had second and third degree burns on 40 percent of my body. Both my arms, my chest, and up to the very bottom of my cheek from the bottom of my lip down are burned,” said Stacy. “The doctors gave me only a 20 […]
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2021 JMS Burn Symposium: Thriving After a Burn Injury

“I guess, when you’re going through something that horrific, you aren’t thinking clearly, because I just wanted to run through and make sure everyone was out. I thought I was Super Woman, going to save everything and everybody,” said Patricia. Oct. 24, 2013 was a routine morning for Patricia Perkins. The 44-year-old beautician from Little […]
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