Cedar Fire Burn Victim Survival 'A Miracle'
Reyes Found Smoldering After Escaping Flames
POSTED: 10:36 am PST February 5,
2004
UPDATED: 5:38 pm PST February 5,
2004
SAN DIEGO -- A Lakeside man still remains in the hospital healing from devastating burns he suffered during the Cedar Fire.
Three months ago, Rudy Reyes, woke up to a wall of flames around his family's Wildcat Canyon home in rural Lakeside.
"I wake up. I can see the fire all over the place," Reyes said.Flames overtook the 26-year-old as he tried to warn his family and make his escape in his car.
He didn't get far."The car wouldn't start. There was no oxygen," Reyes said.Flames surrounded Reyes, so he headed right into the fire toward the safety of a nearby road."I was thinking, I just can't stop. I got to keep moving because no matter what, I am going to get caught in the fire," Reyes said.A Good Samaritan found Reyes on the road and drove him to an ambulance. Reyes knew he had been badly burned."I was smoldering. Literally, smoke coming off my body," he said.Doctors said the heat from the flames was more than 1,200 degrees. Reyes was burned to the bone over 55 percent of his body, but it was the damage to his lungs that most worried doctors at the UCSD Regional Burn Center."Surviving a 55 percent burn isn't all that miraculous, except for the fact that he sustained a very serious inhalation injury and that's what makes a burn this size difficult to survive," Dr. Daniel Lozano said.Reyes has already undergone several surgeries and doctors say he is healing."He was a fighter all the way and he recovered much more quickly than we expected," Lozano said.Reyes latest surgery had doctors carve burned flesh from his body to give him back some mobility."The areas where we cut the scar tissue out, we replaced with tissue, either artificial skin or his own skin, to relieve the contracture of the scar," Lozano said.Lozano hopes to save Reyes' fingers."Our goal is to make him functional so he can take care of himself, have a job, gainful employment," Lozano said.A statue of Virgin Mary still sits above Reyes' hospital bed. It survived the fire as well. To Reyes, it's a testament to survival and strengthens his faith."I constantly feel that there is a guiding light on me," Reyes said.Reyes said he in not ready to give up on his dreams. "I'm hoping to be out of here in a month and going to college," he said."I have already done the hard stuff, there's not much more to go through," he added.Reyes will spend a few more weeks at the UCSD Regional Burn Unit and will have to undergo several more reconstruction surgeries.
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He didn't get far."The car wouldn't start. There was no oxygen," Reyes said.Flames surrounded Reyes, so he headed right into the fire toward the safety of a nearby road."I was thinking, I just can't stop. I got to keep moving because no matter what, I am going to get caught in the fire," Reyes said.A Good Samaritan found Reyes on the road and drove him to an ambulance. Reyes knew he had been badly burned."I was smoldering. Literally, smoke coming off my body," he said.Doctors said the heat from the flames was more than 1,200 degrees. Reyes was burned to the bone over 55 percent of his body, but it was the damage to his lungs that most worried doctors at the UCSD Regional Burn Center."Surviving a 55 percent burn isn't all that miraculous, except for the fact that he sustained a very serious inhalation injury and that's what makes a burn this size difficult to survive," Dr. Daniel Lozano said.Reyes has already undergone several surgeries and doctors say he is healing."He was a fighter all the way and he recovered much more quickly than we expected," Lozano said.Reyes latest surgery had doctors carve burned flesh from his body to give him back some mobility."The areas where we cut the scar tissue out, we replaced with tissue, either artificial skin or his own skin, to relieve the contracture of the scar," Lozano said.Lozano hopes to save Reyes' fingers."Our goal is to make him functional so he can take care of himself, have a job, gainful employment," Lozano said.A statue of Virgin Mary still sits above Reyes' hospital bed. It survived the fire as well. To Reyes, it's a testament to survival and strengthens his faith."I constantly feel that there is a guiding light on me," Reyes said.Reyes said he in not ready to give up on his dreams. "I'm hoping to be out of here in a month and going to college," he said."I have already done the hard stuff, there's not much more to go through," he added.Reyes will spend a few more weeks at the UCSD Regional Burn Unit and will have to undergo several more reconstruction surgeries. Copyright 2004 by 10News.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
