Main fundraiser photo

Laticia's long road to recovery

On Friday 29th June 2018 at approximately 4pm Laticia and her family's world got turned upside down.

Earlier that Friday Laticia, her family and friends gathered in Melbourne to celebrate her fathers life after passing away suddenly on Saturday 23rd of June. The funeral service was beautiful and was a perfect send off... afterwards there was a small celebration held at her fathers house where there were friends, family, food and good vibes.

As Laticia stood with her back to the fire, happy and content with how the day went, telling funny stories about her dad to close family friends it suddenly turned bad... some dead set loser came up to the fire and poured fuel into it... setting Laticia alight. The people directly next to her instantly started trying to extinguish the flames. The fire set alight her jacket and as the fuel had leaked out the bottom of the fire it had ignited the back of Laticia's legs as well, she was wearing only stockings...

That 10 or 15 seconds felt like 10 minutes trying to put out the flames. In that short time the fire done it's damage...

Laticia recieved 3rd degree burns up the back of both legs from mid calf to mid thigh as well as 3rd degree burns to her buttocks to the center between the cheeks where the stockings were thickest. Approximately 15% of her body.

If that wasn't enough to deal with there was still the surgery to endure. Monday 2nd July surgery took place to take skin grafts to try to fix the heavily burned areas. Skin was taken from both legs as well as up both sides of her back... the pain physically and psychologically is immense, even whilst being heavily controlled with pain killers. The effected area is now closer to 50% of her body.

This was supposed to be the time for grieving her fathers passing and reminiscing about his life but instead it's time spent in hospital away from loved ones far from home and the familiar life that gives comfort and security that Laticia and her husband built.

Laticia lives in Mudgee NSW with her husband and young son. She has 4 older children, 3 of which witnessed this horrific event as well as her husband. She is a self employed small business owner who is loved and respected by her peers, friends and especially her family. Laticia is a beautiful woman who has a beautiful caring nature that really shines in times of need and when someone needs support...

Now it's our time to show her support and help her family get through this very tough situation. It's going to be a very long and hard road to recovery physically and who knows how long psychologically.

Being treated and cared for 10hrs from her home town adds to the pain although she is in the best of care. Immediate family trying to travel to visit and offer support, the bills are still ticking over and other added financial stresses are not something they should be burdened with at this time. Laticia's recovery in hospital is estimated to take approximately 4 weeks then possibly transferred closer to home and many more months after that to heal and for physiotherapy.

We all thank you for any form of support.

This is a graph of where Laticia's burns and skin graft areas are.

Stripes are burns and crosses are where skin was harvested from. Even more horrific now...

Organizer

Cheyne Barker
Organizer

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