Elfrad's Story
Elfrad Sanders remembers lighting a cigarette, seeing a spark and then, BOOM. His home – a camper - exploded.
Elfrad was burned over two-thirds of his body. “I lost my whole world, everything I owned,” said the 60-year-old South Carolina man.
Elfrad was supposed to leave on a trip that day and had gotten an extra propane tank. He couldn’t smell the gas was leaking from a tank. His sister, who lives nearby, heard the explosion and called 911, as did several neighbors.
The retiree recalls being loaded onto a stretcher and into an ambulance. Next thing he knew, six weeks had passed and he was at Select Specialty Hospital – Augusta. He has no recollection of his five-week hospitalization at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, Georgia, where he was kept heavily sedated as he underwent life-saving care including numerous surgeries for wound debridement and skin grafts.
Elfrad needed a ventilator and now had a tracheostomy – a slit in his windpipe – with a tube that connected to the machine that helped him breathe. He hadn’t eaten by mouth since the accident. His arms, legs, hands, head and face were blistered and bandaged from third-degree burns. He couldn’t speak, sit or stand.
Elfrad was still unconscious when he transitioned from the Burn Center to Select Specialty Hospital. Immediately, his physician-led, multidisciplinary care team began lowering his medication so he could participate in his rehabilitation. The first few days were rough as he slowly awoke; he was confused and agitated “like a bucking bronco” – a description from one of his therapists – and had to be restrained so he wouldn’t hurt himself.
When the sedation wore off and Elfrad began regaining cognition, his care team’s first priority was helping him to breathe on his own. Every day, for increasing amounts of time, he was disconnected from the ventilator and closely monitored as his lungs inhaled oxygen and exhaled carbon dioxide. Within a week, Elfrad achieved his first milestone: he no longer needed the ventilator.
Wound care nurses cleaned and bandaged his burns, administered pain medication and made sure he moved enough so that he didn’t develop pressure sores.
A speech-language pathologist connected a special valve to his tracheostomy tube that pushed air through his vocal cords, enabling him to speak again. Being able to talk to his nurses, therapists and loved ones was empowering at a time when Elfrad had so little control over what was happening in his life.
“When you’re somewhere and you can’t get up and go on your own, you feel helpless,” he said.
When Elfrad passed a special test demonstrating he could swallow without aspirating, he started eating by mouth again; first, soft foods then transitioning to a normal diet.
With the encouragement of his family and care team, Elfrad committed to doing whatever it took to get back to the life he enjoyed before the accident.
In physical and occupational therapy, that meant working hard to loosen his stiff muscles and to regain strength, balance and dexterity. Early exercises included squeezing a ball with his hands, sitting on the edge of the bed and later, standing. Soon he was doing different types of squats and leg lifts and weights.
“I did pretty good in rehab. They told me I aced everything they wanted me to,” he said.
Twelve days after admission, Elfrad took his first two steps. Later that week, he walked to his chair and back with a walker.
The following week, he walked 60 feet with a walker.
Four weeks after admission, Elfrad could walk 400 feet. His tracheostomy was gone. He went to an inpatient rehabilitation hospital for 10 days to continue working on mobility, dexterity and his ability to care for himself.
“They were all good people. I enjoyed them,” he said of his care teams throughout his journey. “They pushed me to get better. They knew I wanted to get home.”
Today, he’s “98 percent” back to the person he was before the accident. His burns are healed, although he still struggles to grasp objects with his hands, particularly his right hand.
“I get frustrated that my hands don’t work the way I want them to,” he said, noting “I still do the squish ball and I still do squats.”
If he had any doubts how much his family loves him, he now knows. While he was recovering, his siblings transformed a storage shed into a comfortable new tiny home in the same spot where his camper once sat.
“We were all close before the accident, but this got us even closer,” he said.