James Burke remembers very little about the accident. He knows it happened on November 2, 2013, and remembers hanging out with his best friend at his parents\u2019 house before he felt a seizure coming on. He can recall leaving the room to get his medicine from the kitchen, but after that, everything went blank.<\/p>\n
Two weeks later, he woke up in the John S. Dunn Sr. Burn Center at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey told me that I\u2019d fallen into the gas stove and my T-shirt caught fire. There were third-degree burns on over 45 percent of my body,\u201d Burke recalled. \u201cAt first I was in shock. It was difficult to process all at once.\u201d<\/p>\n
A geophysics student at the University of Houston, Burke had grown accustomed to injury by his college years. Growing up, he\u2019d been hurt numerous times playing sports, including getting hit in the head with a fastball during a baseball game, and at one point he was briefly paralyzed after a knockout at football practice. In fact, when he began having seizures at age 17, his physicians looked at those head injuries, which he\u2019d suffered during stages of critical brain development, as possible contributing factors.<\/p>\n
In the years that followed, Burke\u2019s seizures grew dramatically, increasing in both frequency and severity. He began suffering secondary injuries during the episodes, mostly from falls. He\u2019d fallen down brick stairs, through a glass store front and once into a lake at a golf course. But he made it through all of them, and after waking up in the burn unit, he was determined that this time would be no different.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole experience has really made me think about how much everyone takes life for granted,\u201d Burke said. \u201cYou want to know the best part about all of this? I woke up \u2013 I\u2019m here. I was critical, but I made it through. I\u2019m lucky my face and hands aren\u2019t burned. And I figured, I could sit here for two months and have a terrible time, or sit here for two months and make the very best of it. No matter what the situation, things could always be worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
That optimistic attitude, according to Burke\u2019s occupational therapist Kimberly Walker, OTR, is the reason he\u2019s made such a strong recovery.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been a wonderful patient because he is so motivated,\u201d Walker explained. \u201cHe always finds the positive in everything. Burns are extremely painful, and patients find it hard to be motivated when they are in that much pain. But he\u2019s an exception to that rule \u2013 he hasn\u2019t let the pain interfere with his recovery, and he\u2019s made remarkable progress.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burke has come a long way since being transported by ambulance to the Emergency Center at Memorial Hermann-TMC where he was triaged, intubated and then transferred to the burn unit. He was placed under the care of a team of clinicians comprised of specialized nurses, therapists and physicians, including Daniel Freet, M.D., plastic surgeon affiliated with Memorial Hermann-TMC and assistant professor of plastic surgery at UTHealth Medical School, who performed Burke\u2019s multiple skin graft surgeries.<\/p>\n
\u201cJames sustained a very substantial burn injury, one that could have been lethal,\u201d Freet said. \u201cHe was under our care for an extensive period of time and faced a long road to recovery, but he came through it with flying colors and is doing extremely well because he\u2019s worked so hard \u2013 most of his success is through his own diligence. He was highly motivated even through all the pain from the skin graft surgeries. He really did the work to get himself better.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Burke acknowledges that his recovery has been anything but easy, he insists that he owes his success primarily to his caretakers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only reason I\u2019m alive is because of the hard work put in by my doctors, nurses, techs and therapists. I wouldn\u2019t be here without everything they\u2019ve done for me,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a saying in the burn unit that goes, \u2018If it doesn\u2019t hurt, then you\u2019re not doing it right\u2019 \u2013 that\u2019s really helped me put my pain into perspective. The pain meant that I was doing what I needed to be doing to get better, so I had to just put mind over matter and get through it. I remember that whenever my nurses would take my bandages off, I\u2019d tell myself that I was going to endure this pain one step at a time, that I\u2019m going to endure it knowing that I\u2019m lucky to be alive, that all of this is helping me to live a better life in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burke\u2019s courage and hard work paid off \u2013 and not just for his own benefit.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur other patients see him as an inspiration \u2013 they see the extent of his burns and how far he\u2019s come and they think, \u2018I can do this, too,\u2019\u201d Walker said. \u201cTo this day he still comes in early for his appointments and socializes with the other patients. He likes to get a sense of how they\u2019re doing, how they\u2019re coping, and he\u2019ll give them little motivational talks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burke says that ever since the accident, he\u2019s wanted to give back in whatever way he can. \u201cMy attitude changed after getting burned. I realized that I\u2019m not here to just think about myself, I\u2019m here to help others. Whenever I visit other patients, my goal is to always try to make them smile. I want everyone with a disability to feel confident and not shield themselves from others. If you just sit in bed and think about how bad life is, you aren\u2019t going to go anywhere. No matter what you\u2019re dealing with in life, you have to accept it and move on.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Burke has done just that. He is now back in school full time, keeping busy with his studies, social life, and squeezing in golf games whenever he can.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis will to live and return back to his life has inspired all of the staff,\u201d said Stephanice Stephens, RN, B.S.N., clinical manager of the John S. Dunn Sr. Burn Center. \u201cJames looked at every challenge as an obstacle and never as defeat, no matter what the situation. His entire family was unconditionally supportive and appreciative, and I think that had an enormous impact on his spirit, and it helped all of us feel supported and motivated as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s wonderful to see James back to living his life,\u201d Walker added. \u201cAs therapists, we become close to our patients and we want them to have an optimal recovery. Working with James has motivated all of us. I can tell you that, personally, working with him has inspired me to continue to raise the bar of my expectations in being the best clinical practitioner I can be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking toward the future, Burke says he doesn\u2019t want anything to limit what he\u2019s going to be or do. \u201cIt\u2019s just better to be happy than to be sad, to live in the now than in the past,\u201d he said. \u201cGetting burned was obviously a life-changer, but wasn\u2019t a change for the worse. Some people look back on a day like that and think that\u2019s the worst day of my life, but I think it\u2019s just another day in my life. Sure, I got burned and went through numerous surgeries to help repair my body, but I\u2019m repaired. I\u2019m breathing. It feels good regaining all of the skills and basic movements that I took for granted. When I got burned, people would always say \u2018I feel so sorry for you and I\u2019m sure you went through a lot of pain,\u2019 but I had a good time in the hospital. I can honestly say that I found myself in those rooms.\u201d<\/p>\n
– Alexandra Becker<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
James Burke remembers very little about the accident. He knows it happened on November 2, 2013, and remembers hanging out with his best friend at his parents\u2019 house before he felt a seizure coming on. He can recall leaving the room to get his medicine from the kitchen, but after that, everything went blank. Two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[63,345],"yoast_head":"\n