Grayson Cadle is Off to Burn Center in the U.S.A.

Tonight, twenty-one-year-old Grayson Cadle is on his way to Doctors Hospital in Augusta, Georgia in the U.S., to get specialized treatment at the Burn Center. It will be a long road to recovery for Cadle, but as we showed you on Wednesday, his mother is hopeful. And so is Yvette Burks of the Burn Victim Mercy Fund. She was contacted to assist Cadle and in less than forty-eight hours she was able to turn things around. She told us that getting the aid for Cadle was not as easy because of his age, but thankfully they were able to find a respected burn center, as well as better priced air ambulance to take Cadle overseas. Now, it will cost about forty thousand Belize dollars to finance the air ambulance and as you heard Marianne Cadle appeals to the public to chip in and help. Today, Burks spoke with us via phone about Burn Victim Mercy Fund’s work in Cadle’s case.

On the Phone: Yvette Burks, Chair, Burn Victim Mercy Fund

“I was able to secure treatment for him on a charity waiver basis but at a different hospital, not at the Shriner’s Burn Institute. He is going to be travelling to August, Georgia, Doctors Hospital and be treated there at their burn center which is also a state-of-the-art burn center. And we are very blessed that they did come through willing and able to contribute to Grayson’s case. The cost of the air ambulance, of course, is always a concern. So, as usual, I went ahead and secure the air ambulance personally and I am working with the Belize Bank Burn Victim Mercy Fund to get the monies wired to the air ambulance as soon as possible so that they are able to release my personal credit cards which are always used to secure the airplane and getting it here quickly.”

Andrea Polanco

“We understand that he was said to be with about sixty percent or so of his body with burns – is his prognosis a good one?”

On the Phone: Yvette Burks

“It is a difficult one for sure – yes and no. The fact that he is moving now to a burn center, it means that he has the ability because he will be in a facility that is specialized to care for him during the worst of his illness. But as we learned from the Hamilton case, whenever you have an extensive burn, even though it might go on for weeks, sometimes things can take a turn for the worse. But we are always guardedly optimistic when we try to help our patients like this. And I would not send a patient if I didn’t think that the chance was there for him to make it. So, I am very hopeful and optimistic that he will be able to make it and do well.   The last case that I did was the Hamilton case and unfortunately, every child that has been burned since died, including the three in San Pedro recently. It is very heartbreaking, however, because of the public’s continued support to try and help save lives and preserve quality of life, this time at least I started a little bit more than last time. This time I started with a few thousand in the bank because of the contributions made in the Hamilton case; the last time I started with only two thousand in the bank. And this is why Burn Victim Mercy Fund continues to be alive over twenty years later.  So, a big thank you to the public for their continued support because without it this would not be possible.”

To make a donation, you can do so at any Belize Bank branch to the Burn Victim Mercy Fund account number: 1-3866-801-012-0001.