Article published November 27, 2009
FAMILY CELEBRATES AT HOSPITAL
Fulton County burn victim offers special thanks this year
Tiffany Bates, 14, burned on Oct. 23 tending a corn-burning furnace used to heat her family's home, has Thanksgiving dinner with her father, Dale, at Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center.
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THE BLADE/AMY E. VOIGT
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By IGNAZIO MESSINA
BLADE STAFF WRITER
After five weeks of painful recovery from burns on her face, neck, and chest, 14-year-old Tiffany Bates was thankful yesterday for spending the holiday with her family and getting ready to go home.
The Fulton County teenager was joined yesterday by 16 family members in the cafeteria of Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center for Thanksgiving dinner. And although the meal was hospital food, no one seemed to mind.
"It was really rough, and it's still been rough," Tiffany said. "I just felt really good they were all willing to go out of their way to be with me [and] I'm thankful I'm healthy enough to be here."
Tiffany has undergone two surgeries, including skin grafts using tissue from other parts of her body to repair the damage from an Oct. 23 accident that burned 18 percent of her body.
Jenny Bates joins her daughter Tiffany, 14, at a cafeteria serving station at Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center.
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THE BLADE/AMY E. VOIGT
)
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"I'm a strong person because of this," she said. "I was a wimp before. If I would get a bruise I wouldn't cry, but complain, and now I have been through this, and I am going to be a lot stronger."
Tiffany was tending the family's corn-burning furnace, which is used to heat their home east of Fayette in Chesterfield Township, when a back draft from the chimney blew flames out of the open door."It could have been so much worse," Tiffany's mother, Jenny Bates, said. "When I got to the basement by the corn burner, her face was on fire and she was on the ground trying to put her face out and I just grabbed the first thing I could to put her out."
Dale Bates, Tiffany's father, choked back tears when asked about his daughter's homecoming planned for today.
"After everything we have been through it's just so great," Mr. Bates said. "Tiff gets to go home and share Thanksgiving with her family, so it's pretty special."
He said extended family members canceled other plans to be at the hospital yesterday.
"It is awesome to see her smile and interact with her family again," Mr. Bates said. "We are a strong-knit family and everyone just dropped their plans to be here and it's kind of special to know they could do that."
Mrs. Bates said her daughter has seen life in a new way during her recovery.
"She realizes that she has been blessed and one of the things she told me was that 'God's got big plans for me, Mom,'•" she said.
"My family had said whatever it took that we were all going to have Thanksgiving together because we have such a wonderful thing to be thankful for because we have her still."
Tiffany's aunt, Kathy Blank, made a homemade apple dumpling dessert and drove more than three hours from Holland, Mich., to spend the holiday with the family.
"We were trying to figure out how we were all going to get together because we weren't really sure," she said. "People who might not have necessarily gotten together today, got together for Tiffany and we are just thankful she is OK and actually I think she is better than OK."
Family in Ohio came from Bowling Green, Wauseon, and Defiance, and those in Michigan came from Holland and Eaton Rapids.
Hospital officials said Tiffany made amazing progress in the burn unit.
"She has had a remarkable recovery," said Dr. Barry Knotts, the surgeon on duty when Tiffany arrived.
"She has been a delight to take care of [and] she is a quite a young lady."
Contact Ignazio Messina at:
imessina@theblade.com
or 419-724-6171.
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