Grateful mother is thankful for son's recovery, burn specialists, nurses

Letter to the Editor,

In honor of National Burn Awareness week that was recognized this month, I would like to share our story.

April 28, 2006, was one of the worst days of my life, but also one of the best.

My son Brady was 23 months old and fell into a fire in our back yard. My husband was able to get him out and get him to Newport Hospital where they flew him to Seattle, Wash., to Harborview Medical Center. We spent 34 days with Brady, as he had many surgeries to graft skin on his neck and left arm, his fingers on his left hand are shorter now but he can do anything that anyone else can.

We had to return for additional surgeries after we were able go home.

We are so thankful for all the doctors, nurses, therapists and all the other hospital staff, I can’t imagine being in a better place than Harborview.

Brady is an incredibly strong, stubborn, and smart kid. I truly believe, everything happens for a reason, I’m not sure why my son would have been burned, and I may never know, but I know my family is stronger because of this experience.

We are so lucky that all he has are scars, it could have been so much worse..... That is the best part of April 28th, we still have Brady.

Brady was lucky enough to be able to attend a camp for burn survivors last summer, we hope he will again this year.

The Eyabsut camp family is a group of incredible people. We are so thankful for all of them and the Northwest Burn Foundation for making camp possible.

— Tallie O’Brien,

Brady’s mother

former Troy resident