NB: Somewhat graphic photos at the bottom of page: reader discretion is advised...

In 2011 I was grievously burned in a housefire.

I went into the house (not mine) looking for my 4-1/2 year old son. It seemed there was no one home but by a long and pretty sad domestic situation (omitted) it was possible that he was there alone. It was a 160 yr. old wood frame farmhouse and I would have never believed a house could go up so quickly. Another long story left out, I got trapped in the house and was grievously burned. My parents were alive at the time and the surgeons told them they didn't know if I would survive. 11 months in Canada's premier burn unit in Sunnybrook Hospital--the doctors there told me had I been in lesser facilities in the world, "You would have died." Another 10 months at St. John's Rehab Hospital.

I didn't get any money from insurance because everyone knows that a burning house is dangerous, and in choosing to go in I assumed all responsibility for my safety: most would agree it's not fair, but I couldn't find a lawyer to even touch it (insurance companies don't pay out because they feel bad for you).

I now require 3 PSW visits daily to keep me going: I can't dress/undress myself, bathe/shower myself, can't get on/off a toilet myself, diapers are required because I had a catheter in for so long my bladder never learned to close up tight again, can't wipe my own butt and if I can't hold it until my next PSW visit then I have to crap myself and stay that way until someone changes me. PSWs get me up and dressed and into my wheelchair in the morning, and that is where I stay until my afternoon diaper change--guess how humiliating that is--and then back into my wheelchair until bedtime when I am put to bed, and there I remain until someone gets me up.

In many places small pieces of muscle tissue were removed from all over my back, a substantial amount from the back of the upper right shoulder, and other places as shown in the photos: this is what is called 4th degree burns, where even the muscle was burned.

All the chicken flesh-like stuff are skin grafts. Unfortunately muscle wasn't the only thing that had to be removed and now I take heavy meds (TRT therapy) with not pleasant side effects to compensate.

Also lost were the majority of my capillaries (from Grade 6, those tiny veins under the skin, you get cold and they open wider allowing more blood to flow, warming you up) and sweat pores, making me hypersensitive to cold and heat; and oil pores, so my skin must be kept well moisturised throughout the day.

One bright side, given the realities, is that once I am in my electric wheelchair I can go anywhere: I only require a little wrist action to manipulate my wheelchair, and I go out everyday.

I am closing on 68 now and live on minimum govt. OAS and CPP: I am grateful for what I get but still, it isn't much.

So I panhandle every day for extra money--which is probably how the reader found this page. It's cheesy, but I do what I have to do to get by...

Now (2025), the scars have all lightened considerably and are no longer hard to look at, and I have recovered further than anyone believed that I would; by this time, what you see is what I get!

Here is a photo of me taken in June 2011, 3 months before the fire:

Taken in May 2013--you can see that my face wasn't badly burned: if it had been burned to the extent that the vast majority of the rest of my body was, I don't think I would have dealt with that well at all... .

Many of these photos open up quite large.

The following photos were all taken in mid-2017.

My right arm is much smaller due extensive 4th degree burns.

R. outer thigh (considerable muscle tissue removed)

R. inner thigh

R leg (inner) There was a fairly substantial amount of muscle removed

from the back of my calf but in the photo that area is quite dark, and it doesn't really show.

L thigh (underside). Substantial amount of muscle tissue removed just above the well of the knee.

Have your picture taken with me--$10 (kidding!!)

Donations are well appreciated, I assure you...