On November 10th 2014, 16 year old Kilee
Brookbank returned to her home in Georgetown, Ohio and perceived a
strange odour. To combat the odour, Kilee lit a candle and that was when
her life changed forever. The house immediately exploded and she was
engulfed in flames that razed off 25% of her skin. The freak explosion
burned off her finger tips, hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, and
obliterated the skin from her arms, back, legs, face, and stomach with
third-degree burns.
The fire was so aggressive it went right to the fat beneath her skin, leaving her hands milk-bottle white
Her
mother and stepfather were at work when the house exploded and Kilee
ran out the half destroyed walls into the street on fire. Her neighbours began throwing buckets of water on
her as they made efforts to call her parents. She
was rushed to a helipad with her mother then flown to Cincinnati
Children's Hospital 20 minutes away, then transferred to the specialist
unit at Shriner's down the road where her father met them.
In
the emergency room doctors cut open her arms in a desperate bid to
reduce the swelling, while she was given oxygen, an IV, and doused in
antibiotic solution.
Incredibly, the 16 year old has made a quick recovery two months later and and this week she
took the ultimate step to go back to school. After four operations,
skin grafts on her hands, and two months of physiotherapy, Kilee has
returned to RULH High School, where she is honour student and plays
soccer. She is one out of many lucky people who have escaped the harsh
effect of fire outbreak.
"I guess I'm just lucky,' Brookbank said
to WCPO "It makes you stronger. You don't take anything for granted.
It's life changing. I know there's worse things that can happen.'
Few could imagine anything much worse than lighting a candle to get rid of a foul smell, then almost burning to death.
'It
felt normal,' she said. 'My body felt the same, kind of numb. My hands
felt different. I remember it was really hot, but it didn't hurt.'
Investigators are still working to
understand the cause of the fire, which is likely to have been a propane
gas leak. See her pics below...
Source: UK Daily Mail
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