Grayson Cadle: The Story of A Burn Survivor
Grayson Cadle
In 2018 a butane gas explosion rocked the Mopan and Mahogany Streets neighbourhood in Belize City when a faulty butane cylinder exploded in an apartment building. Three persons were injured including twenty-two-year-old Grayson Cadle. Cadle received second and third-degree burns to more than seventy percent of his body. After a few days at the K.H.M.H., Cadle was flown to Augusta, Georgia to receive treatment at the Doctor’s Hospital. He returned on Saturday and today Hipolito Novelo visited him to see how he is settling him.
Hipolito Novelo, Reporting
From a burn victim to a survivor, today twenty-two-year-old Grayson Cadle was at this Belize City apartment. He returned home on Saturday after spending seven months at the Doctors Hospital in Augusta, Georgia, receiving treatment for second and third-degree burns. Cadle received burns to more than seventy percent of his body in July 2019. A leaking butane tank had exploded at his then apartment building.
Grayson Cadle, Burn Survivor
“The first thing I remember going home, like I said in other interviews, I just had to use the bathroom so bad that I rushed home. By the time I closed the door I start strip down. That’s why I had tank tops and boxers brief when it actually happened. Going into the bathroom, I have the bathroom of turning of the lights, as I flicked on the light switch, fire. After like ten seconds just to fiddle in there to try to figure out what happened, a big explosion happened right after.”
Cadle was rushed to the KHMH where he remained for a few days in a critical condition. Through the assistance of the Burn Victim Mercy Fund and Yvette Burke, Cadle was flown to the United States of America to receive specialized treatment.
Grayson Cadle
“My skin is still maturing actually. It is a two year period of my skin maturing but six months from now I am suppose to go back and do laser surgeries for like these scars that are on my face and all over my body. Actually I have scars thickening. This compression suit that I am wearing, it is not that full suit right now but I am suppose to wearing it twenty-four hours per day. They gave me this mask to wear as well over my face.”
But Cadle has a concern because wearing a black mask in public is not common.
Grayson Cadle
“It is supposed to help with the scars. What is does is actually squeeze it in and actually thin it out so that my face gets back its natural contour and features. The fear I have with it, I explained this at a meeting that we had at a hospital over there, suppose I have to go in a bank one of these days wearing a mask. You know how security goes. “Hey where are going?” Big ol’ gun pointed at my face. “I am just trying to get some money. I am not trying to rob anyone.’ But that is just the basic fear that I have. Couple of people look at me couple of times and want to know what is happening but I just smile and wave.”
But if law enforcement officers stop him, he’ll need to show them this card.
Grayson Cadle
“I have a card signed for it just in case police stops you or anything. ‘Why do you have on a mask?’ I could show them that my doctor said that I need to wear it. The suit on a whole it is not the regular compression suit. It is a specialized compression suit. It is tighter but it breathes even better because it wouldn’t sweat as much in regular clothes.”
…regular cloths for a regular young man. After a life-changing event, Cadle today appeared like a normal young man. He remains unfazed by the devastating events on July ninth 2018.
Grayson Cadle Burn Survivor
“I had a peer supporter while I was at the burn ICU. This guy told me just like this and I remember the words exactly, “Your life does not end here. What happened you must accept and move on.” From he told me those words, my determination just kicked in. First I would be down and wouldn’t want to do therapy at all. When they said let’s walk I would drag my feet, grumpy. But after he told me that and seeing how far he has coming since he was in a refinery explosion over in the US, it is inspired me. At the end of the day what you have outside does not determine who you are. It is what inside of your heart. How you actually react to people.
And one of the long-lasting reactions that Cadle would always be grateful for came from Yvette Burke of the Burn Victim Fund.
Grayson Cadle
“If it wasn’t for Ms. Yvette Burke I wouldn’t be here. Well if it wasn’t for God, Ms. Yvette Burke and everyone at the hospital I wouldn’t be here right now. Being real with you, if you saw the apartment when the incident had just happened, if that burglar barred door hadn’t blown off, I would have burn to a crisp in that apartment. If it wasn’t for Ms. Yvette who got in contact with my mom and got me out of Belize, I would be probably a talking torso who would have no limbs or anything. If it wasn’t for the doctors over at the hospital, I wouldn’t have skin or anything like that right now.”
Hipolito Novelo, News Five.
