Age 15 Girl Severely Burned by Fire Pit Gets Heartfelt Prom Surprise from Friends
When we’re kids, we don’t properly understand why our parents urge us to avoid playing with fire. There’s something mesmerizing about a twisting and twining flame, hypnotic way it lunges and leaps.
Experimenting with flame can often cause disastrous damage. A group of Chicago-area teens discovered just that on April 28.
Close to a dozen students were simply sitting around a fire pit in Glendale Heights, Illinois, when a boy poured gasoline into the fire, causing it to explode and injure eight of the youths.
Firefighter Greg Ostrand described the scene to CBS Chicago using words that made it sound like a war zone, saying, “A lot of burned kids walking around in shock. Had that million mile stare, walking around not really knowing what was going on when we pulled up.”
One girl had to be placed in a medically induced coma, and another boy was hospitalized with extensive burns. However, Korryn Bachner’s injuries were incredibly poignant.
The teenage cheerleader suffered third-degree burns primarily on her face and head. In fact, they were so severe that she will require facial reconstruction surgery.
That’s a devastating physical and psychological blow for someone in the bloom of youth. Yet what made it all the more difficult was that prom was coming up.
With her head engulfed in a giant swathe of bandages, Korryn didn’t think that she could show up to the event and canceled. But her friends and date disagreed.
They showed up at her house and convinced her to go out with them. So Korryn got into her dress and made the most of it.
That isn’t the only encouraging thing to come out of the disfiguring accident that has impacted so many lives.
The community has stepped up to help her parents meet her medical expenses.
A family friend started a GoFundMe campaign on behalf of the Bachners. As of press time, it had raised $76,655 in just 14 days.
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