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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