December 9, 2024 • 21 mins
Survivor Matt Urey from Richmond checks in five years to the date.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Matt, remind everybody what happened five years ago today.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
So five years ago today, excuse me. My wife and
I were on our honeymoon in New Zealand and we
are taking a tour of a volcanic island and while
we were there, the volcano erupted.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
And you and your wife ended up.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
I remember the videos Matt of when the volcano erupted
of people trying to run and sprint to get away,
and people were getting I don't know what do you
call it, hit by the lava, burned by the lava,
and you and you and your wife who are on
your honeymoon, you were two of the people that got it.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah, so there was nowhere to run on the island.
We just hit behind a rock out cropping. We only
had like forty seconds between when the eruption started and
when the ash cloud hit us, So we really we
had almost no time to react, able to at least
take shelter behind some rocks and blunt some of the impact.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
When you say blunt some of the impact, does that
mean Thatt that like, like, listen, I've never I've never
been around a volcano, let alone one that's exploding. Right,
is like when it, when it goes, when it when
it blows, and you said hide behind rocks for impact,
is it like is it almost like a like a
bomb has gone off.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah? So this wasn't like like what I would have
imagined a volcanic ruption looking like. There was no lava.
It was just this huge superheated cloud of steam and
ash with all sorts of acid mixed in, and it
just came rushing up and then it was like a
mushroom cloud and it came back down on us and
like the force was enough. It blew my wife's gas
(01:48):
mask off and I ended up burning part of her esophagus.
It's a significant force.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Oh you know what, So that that's it. I mean,
it's horrible, but it interesting. So there was no lava.
It wasn't like the lava was creeping up on you guys.
It's just the the steam and the heat and the
and the ash that was coming down.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah. I think it's called a pyroclastic flow is the
official term for it. But yet it's just very hot
steam and ash.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Matt Do you even remember it five years later?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Oh yeah, I remember every minute of it up until
the second host that I got to and they put
me to sleep for the night and then they went
into a coma, and that's the last I remember.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
So when you when you and your when you and
your wife duck behind the duck behind the rocks, and
and it hit like was it like they always say
that that when you that when you burn, right when
when you catch on fire.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
I've never had this that it hurts really bad, but
very briefly because once the nerve endings go, you don't
feel it. Is there any truth to that? Or is
it unbelievable excruciating pain.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
It's une excruciating paint, and then it goes away, like
I thought, it mostly in my back where I only
had superficial burns. My arms and legs where I had
the really severe burns, I don't remember feeling that at all.
It was just on my back where I didn't get
burned as badly.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
How how long did it take for them to get
to you? To get you out of there?
Speaker 2 (03:20):
They didn't get to us. We had to go to
the shore. And then so our tour boat was still
sitting in the k but it was covered in ash.
So it wasn't usual the previous tour from the island,
which was with random people came back and we got
onto their boat.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
So you were part of an excursion, yes, from so
you would take it a cruise and then the boat
takes you to like this little cake coat area.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
This wasn't the cruise boat. This was the actual volcano
as an island. So we left the New Zealand coast
and then it's like, I think it was a little
over an hour boat ride to the island with just
a regular it was a local tour company, right, and
then that tour company's larger boat sends us out on
(04:12):
one of those little rubber zodiac boats to go to
the shorts. There's not really a dock or anything there.
It's just this cement pier with the rusty ladder on it, right,
So we had to get back on that rubber boat,
and then we went to the previous tours boat that
came back to rescue us. So it was already full
of people, so there actually wasn't enough space for us.
We were sitting on the front of the boat, exposed
(04:34):
to all the elements. We didn't even get to go
in the cabin.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
And could people tell you were burned at this point?
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Oh? Yeah, there was no question. The skin was just peeling.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Off at that point, and both you and your wife, Yeah,
and you had to so you had to slip back
to this boat. And they get on the boat and
everybody's like, I'm not giving up my seat. So you're
sitting there with your skin burning off.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Yeah, and we're it's like those pictures after nine eleven
when everybody just covered in that ash. That's exactly what
we looked like. We're just covered in this horrible acidic ash.
So it just kept burning us too. Eventually, some of
the other tourists, because there was nobody medical there, they
just started rinsing us off with water bottles just to
(05:23):
try and help.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Did that How bad was that? That's got to be
painful as hell.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
It didn't feel good.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Sorry for laughing. How long O? How long is the
boat ride?
Speaker 1 (05:37):
So now you're on the boat, people are splashing you
with bottled water? Oh can I can I ask you
something else?
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Can you?
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Can you smell yourself burning?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
I don't remember it. I mean it was I most
remember smelling sulfur, just because it's the volcano and there
was a lot of sulfur there. I don't remember smelling
my skin.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
And how was your so and what is your wife
doing during all of this? Like the two of you
were just sitting there burning.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
She was actually going hypothermic because I've lost so much
skin that she couldn't control her temperature. And we're just outside.
It wasn't a very warmed is probably low sixties. And
we're on the ocean on a boat with the wind
blowing over us because they were trying to go as
fast as they could to us back the shore. So
she was almost passing out from hypothermia on the front
(06:29):
of the boat on the way back to the shore.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
How long is the boat ride back to the shore?
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Sixty very long minutes, so.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
For an hour, and you got all that water splashing
on you, you got wind all over you, You're watching your wife.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Could you even focus on her?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
That's all I was focused on on the way back.
That's the only thing that made it bearable, is just
trying to keep her awake and alert.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
I feel like you're a better person than I am.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
I'd like I'm I mean, I can't even imagine what
that would be like, but I guess I can understand
what you're saying where it's almost you're so focused on her.
You're not even really, I don't want to say, paying
attention to yourself, but you may not realize how bad
you are because you're so focused on her.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Yeah, I had no idea how badly burned I was.
It wasn't until I woke up from the coma that
I realized just how bad of a place I was in.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Hey, before we get to that part, I want to
say that we had talked to somebody and Matt, I
don't know. I don't know if they were friends with
you or with Lauren. But do I have this right?
And I have this memory, and if I'm wrong, I
forgive me. But I remember talking to somebody who was
friendly with the family, either like I said, your family
or Lauren's family, your wife. Didn't they put you guys
(07:46):
in different hospitals.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yes, that was my friend Daniel. He spoke with you,
actually in the room with me, and yeah, we were
ended up. So we initially went to the same hospital,
but the and it was right on shore when we
got back, but it was just a little like small
town hospital. The whole city was like thirty thousand people,
so they weren't equipped for a mass casualty event. So
(08:11):
then yeah, we got shipped to two hospitals like six
hundred miles apart.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
And so your wife goes to Hospital A, you're at
Hospital B. How and you said they did they immediately
put you into a coma.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
It was I think the next day, but I don't
remember anything after I fell asleep that night because the
eruption had happened at two eleven. And then I got
to my final hospital. I ended up staying at it
like three in the morning.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Dude, So twelve thirteen hours later, Oh my god, I can't.
I can't believe that you're that you're conscious for that long.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
I know I can't either that the first hospital wasn't
equipped for it. All they could do was wrap us
in plastic and shipp us off to bigger hospitals.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
How much of your body was burned?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
I was burned fifty three percent, and my wife has
burned twenty thirty percent.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
And I'm assumed, like when they say burned, like, I'm
assuming that's like burn burned, like like third degree burns.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
That was total burns. I think my third degree burns
are about a third, about thirty three percent. If you
look at me, I was wearing shorts and T shirt,
and exactly what wasn't covered by clothing was pretty much
completely burned.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
If I saw you now, would I be able to tell? Yes,
of course you can tell.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
It's not as dramatic as it was, like if the
early pictures of us everything was deep red. Now it's
just a little off color. And obviously there's no hair
or anything on the grass. But otherwise yet we don't
stand out too much, but we do get recognized from
time time.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
How long? How long were you in the hospital?
Speaker 2 (09:54):
So they put me into the coma that next day.
Then I woke up to summer twenty first, and then
I came back to the States on February first, and
I think my wife was a few days ahead of me.
We both came back to VCU, and then I was
there for another week and she was there for another
two weeks or so.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
How did you fly from there back to Richmond?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
So we flew the long international leg commercial because there
was just no other way to do it. So we
actually flew business class the way back, obviously separate flights,
and then I believe my wife took commercial flights the
whole way in. I took an air ambulance from Los
Angeles to Richmond.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
How is it the like do you go to check
in on the commercial flight and they're like, oh, let's
bump you up, you know what I mean? Like I
would look at you and be like, I don't how
am I supposed to make you comfortable flying from New
Zealand to America.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Luckily, the New Zealand government hooked us up and they
were able to just send us straight onto the plane
and they actually put a flight nurse with us to
make sure everything was okay for the flight.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
And then you took an air ambulance from LA to Richmond. Yes, dude,
how many surgeries did you have?
Speaker 2 (11:18):
So? Between my wife and I we ended up I
think it was somewhere between eighty and one hundreds right
over four years.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
They always say, and maybe you can, maybe you can
clarify this a little bit. And again, I've never been
through anything like that, right, Matt. Is that they have
to keep like you always hear those stories of how
they have to keep scrubbing the burn or cleaning the burn.
And I don't know if I have the phrasing right,
but does that like you know what I'm talking about?
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Yeah, So most of that was done while I was
still in a coma. But I do still remember the
first dressing change after I woke up. The dressing stuck
to my back, which is where they had taken all
the don't skin from, so it was all raw and
it was everybody as painful as that actual initial eruption.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Just because all the gauze and dressing sticks to you.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Yeah, And you said, between the two, you've had hundreds
of one hundred surgeries.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Do give or take? Yeah, So the stars keep tightening
and growing and moving and changing. So there's just constant
revisions to try and keep our flexibility. Like my wife
got it really bad. She burned her right hand on
the palm side and the back. I was lucky. I
just burned the back of my hands. So she's had
probably at least a dozen surgeries to try and keep
(12:41):
her hand in the usable state. She still has some
reduced script and range of motion, but she it still works,
so they were able to save her hand and keep
it useful. Some of the other people ended up losing fingers.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Did you lose anything, No, nope. Hey, you when you
say donor skin, do you have any idea how many
people's skin you have on your body, so.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Now it is all mine. The actual donor skin that
the cadaver skin is just uses kind of a large
band aid until you're in a stolid enough state that
they can actually they basically take a glorified vegetable peeler
to you and feel off your skin and move it around.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Jesus Christ. Yeah, so what is the is there? So
like now we're five years later, the is there any part?
Like is there like you said, your wife in one
of her hands still has a little bit of a
grip problem or a lessened grip?
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Is there? Is there? Is there anything? I don't want
to say? What's the word I'm looking for? Like you
didn't lose anything?
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Like?
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Is there anything that doesn't work you? Yeah, I don't
know what you call it.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Main thing for me good grass can't sweat, so I
can't sweat like I used to. So I used to
be like an avid runner and can't do that anymore
because I just overheat very quickly because my body can't
cool itself off as well anymore. But other than that, No,
we're incredibly incredibly lucky and unlucky.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
I guess the well, no, I would say in the
grand Yes, five years ago unlucky.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
But since then, I feel like very lucky. Dude. You're
out in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Yepkay, I feel like that could have gone a thousand
times worse.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Oh yeah, we're not many people can say they've walked
away from a volcanic corruption.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
What is the and I understand you guys have a
kid now.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Yes, this past July, we finally were able to continue
on our lives. Close that chapter and we had our
first baby.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Was there any was there any.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Not complications, anything special you had to do, just considering
both you and your wife's condition about about getting pregnant.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Luckily both of us are torsos were all spared. My
wife had one small starband on her stomach that the
doctors had to watch, but it did find baby didn't
have any problems, So we're very lucky.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
How quickly when you came out of the coma, did
you ask like, like, my nuts are okay?
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Right? That was one of the first questions there you.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Go, No, but I didn't even think of that, But
I would have asked immediately like the twig and berries
are all right?
Speaker 3 (15:36):
So the so what?
Speaker 1 (15:38):
So five years later, where where does everything? Where does
everything stand now? In terms of like, you're back to work,
you've got a kid.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Like I don't.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
I don't want to say like, hey, we we've completely
moved on, but we're in a much obviously we're in
a much better space.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
But I feel like we're in a good space.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, obviously it'll always be part
of our lives. The stars are there every day, but
it's a smaller and smaller part of our lives. But
I mean, we made it through.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
I also feel like there was a lot of community
outreach and a lot of community support.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Absolutely, our friends set up a go fund me for
us while we were in the still in New Zealand,
and tons of people tipped in. I did see several
hashtagicm yeah online.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Yes, yeah, eg so that was nice.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
I appreciate that. Yes, we've received an unbelievable law of
support from all the doctors and medical professionals. I mean,
everybody has tipped in to help us over the past
five years. It's been amazing.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Hey was there and again I'm trying to remember, so
forgive me if I get it wrong. Was there some
issue with was was Lauren's mom trying to get there?
Or was there something going on with trying to connect
the two of them early on.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Yeah, they didn't Actually something was lost in communication and
they didn't know which hospital Lauren ended up at, so
her mom just flew over to New Zealand and then
tried to figure it out from there which hospital she
was in. Oh my gosh, because there was just so
much going on that they lost track of who was where, how.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Many how many people were on the were on the
island when the when the eruption went, I want.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
To say it was forty six if I remember right.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
And is there is there a I mean, I'm assuming
you two weren't the only two that suffered injuries in
the in the eruption.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Oh yeah, nobody escaped unscathed, and I think twenty one
twenty two people ended up dying and then but everybody
that was on the island got burned some degree. There
were a few that were on a different tour that
happened to be close to the shore and they were
able to jump in the water, so they were mostly spared,
but everybody else was very severely But an't.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Is there anybody else that went through what you guys
went through that?
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Like are you.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Still is there like a I don't know if it's
a group text, but is there like communication with the
with the survivors of that.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Yeah, there's actually we have a little group chat that
we just keep in touch obviously the anniversary, so chatting
back and forth a little bit since then. But most
of them are Australians and New Zealanders. There's only a
handful that were from the United States or elsewhere.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Would you say everybody that that survived. I mean, like
you said, the scars will never go away, but would
would would I look at everybody and go they came
out of this, barring the twenty one, but they came
out of this and are doing as well as Matt
and Laurin.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Or uh some dumbys, I mean some people ask their
entire families, brothers, sisters, they were only survivor. I mean
those people be I can't imagine what they're going through.
Lauren and I, in the grand scheme of things, were
extremely extremely lucky that we both survived and are in
good shape.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Man, you have a great attitude about it. I can't tell,
because like I said, I remember us talking about it.
I can't tell on your side. Five years has it
gone by quickly or has it just been an eternity.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
The surgery part was hard because, like Lauren was getting
her surgery done by a doctor at Johns Hopkins. So
we're acting to drive up to Baltimore once a month
basically for three years during COVID, and that got to
be very exhausting because then she would come back, recover
for a week and have to go back to work. Right,
(19:43):
So that part of it was very difficult. And like
I said, COVID just added a whole other level of
the accept She had to get tested beforehand, and it
made life very complicated, especially with physical therapy. But I mean,
in some ways it seems like it was forever.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Oh and now uh and now saw that's great.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Well, I'm glad.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
I'm glad that you and Lauren are doing uh, are
doing well. I'm glad that I'm glad that you saw
people hashtagy I TM online.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
That makes me happy. I hope it made you laugh,
did okay?
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Good?
Speaker 3 (20:20):
And I know, I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
I don't know where else to leave it other than
I mean, I'm I'm obviously it's five years and I
don't think you say happy anniversary, but I'm happy that
you guys are doing well.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Oh no, absolutely, we are doing very well. And I
will forever be able to want up people with great
good jokes and volcano joke.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
There you go, Hey, what's the best volcano joke you've heard?
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Ah? You put me on a slot.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
I don't have one ready, that's all right, you'll think
of it. Well, listen, Matt, please please give our best
to Lauren and Uh. I'm glad we were able to
connect up with you on the UH on the fifth anniversary.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
I hope it's a hope it's a good anniversary.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
And in talking to your your friends and the group
chat and obviously having a child now, I hope it's
a I hope it's a good anniversary.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Well, thank you very much. I appreciate that you got it.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Matt. Hey, hold on one second.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
I want to make sure we have your number in case,
well number one, in case I need volcano jokes down
the line, But if anything comes up and I need
to get in touch with you, hold tight one second, all.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Right, dude, sure you got it. Hold on one second.
Oh my god,
Matt, remind everybody what happened five years ago today.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
So five years ago today, excuse me. My wife and
I were on our honeymoon in New Zealand and we
are taking a tour of a volcanic island and while
we were there, the volcano erupted.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
And you and your wife ended up.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
I remember the videos Matt of when the volcano erupted
of people trying to run and sprint to get away,
and people were getting I don't know what do you
call it, hit by the lava, burned by the lava,
and you and you and your wife who are on
your honeymoon, you were two of the people that got it.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah, so there was nowhere to run on the island.
We just hit behind a rock out cropping. We only
had like forty seconds between when the eruption started and
when the ash cloud hit us, So we really we
had almost no time to react, able to at least
take shelter behind some rocks and blunt some of the impact.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
When you say blunt some of the impact, does that
mean Thatt that like, like, listen, I've never I've never
been around a volcano, let alone one that's exploding. Right,
is like when it, when it goes, when it when
it blows, and you said hide behind rocks for impact,
is it like is it almost like a like a
bomb has gone off.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah? So this wasn't like like what I would have
imagined a volcanic ruption looking like. There was no lava.
It was just this huge superheated cloud of steam and
ash with all sorts of acid mixed in, and it
just came rushing up and then it was like a
mushroom cloud and it came back down on us and
like the force was enough. It blew my wife's gas
(01:48):
mask off and I ended up burning part of her esophagus.
It's a significant force.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Oh you know what, So that that's it. I mean,
it's horrible, but it interesting. So there was no lava.
It wasn't like the lava was creeping up on you guys.
It's just the the steam and the heat and the
and the ash that was coming down.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah. I think it's called a pyroclastic flow is the
official term for it. But yet it's just very hot
steam and ash.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Matt Do you even remember it five years later?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Oh yeah, I remember every minute of it up until
the second host that I got to and they put
me to sleep for the night and then they went
into a coma, and that's the last I remember.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
So when you when you and your when you and
your wife duck behind the duck behind the rocks, and
and it hit like was it like they always say
that that when you that when you burn, right when
when you catch on fire.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
I've never had this that it hurts really bad, but
very briefly because once the nerve endings go, you don't
feel it. Is there any truth to that? Or is
it unbelievable excruciating pain.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
It's une excruciating paint, and then it goes away, like
I thought, it mostly in my back where I only
had superficial burns. My arms and legs where I had
the really severe burns, I don't remember feeling that at all.
It was just on my back where I didn't get
burned as badly.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
How how long did it take for them to get
to you? To get you out of there?
Speaker 2 (03:20):
They didn't get to us. We had to go to
the shore. And then so our tour boat was still
sitting in the k but it was covered in ash.
So it wasn't usual the previous tour from the island,
which was with random people came back and we got
onto their boat.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
So you were part of an excursion, yes, from so
you would take it a cruise and then the boat
takes you to like this little cake coat area.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
This wasn't the cruise boat. This was the actual volcano
as an island. So we left the New Zealand coast
and then it's like, I think it was a little
over an hour boat ride to the island with just
a regular it was a local tour company, right, and
then that tour company's larger boat sends us out on
(04:12):
one of those little rubber zodiac boats to go to
the shorts. There's not really a dock or anything there.
It's just this cement pier with the rusty ladder on it, right,
So we had to get back on that rubber boat,
and then we went to the previous tours boat that
came back to rescue us. So it was already full
of people, so there actually wasn't enough space for us.
We were sitting on the front of the boat, exposed
(04:34):
to all the elements. We didn't even get to go
in the cabin.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
And could people tell you were burned at this point?
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Oh? Yeah, there was no question. The skin was just peeling.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Off at that point, and both you and your wife, Yeah,
and you had to so you had to slip back
to this boat. And they get on the boat and
everybody's like, I'm not giving up my seat. So you're
sitting there with your skin burning off.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Yeah, and we're it's like those pictures after nine eleven
when everybody just covered in that ash. That's exactly what
we looked like. We're just covered in this horrible acidic ash.
So it just kept burning us too. Eventually, some of
the other tourists, because there was nobody medical there, they
just started rinsing us off with water bottles just to
(05:23):
try and help.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Did that How bad was that? That's got to be
painful as hell.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
It didn't feel good.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Sorry for laughing. How long O? How long is the
boat ride?
Speaker 1 (05:37):
So now you're on the boat, people are splashing you
with bottled water? Oh can I can I ask you
something else?
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Can you?
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Can you smell yourself burning?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
I don't remember it. I mean it was I most
remember smelling sulfur, just because it's the volcano and there
was a lot of sulfur there. I don't remember smelling
my skin.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
And how was your so and what is your wife
doing during all of this? Like the two of you
were just sitting there burning.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
She was actually going hypothermic because I've lost so much
skin that she couldn't control her temperature. And we're just outside.
It wasn't a very warmed is probably low sixties. And
we're on the ocean on a boat with the wind
blowing over us because they were trying to go as
fast as they could to us back the shore. So
she was almost passing out from hypothermia on the front
(06:29):
of the boat on the way back to the shore.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
How long is the boat ride back to the shore?
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Sixty very long minutes, so.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
For an hour, and you got all that water splashing
on you, you got wind all over you, You're watching your wife.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Could you even focus on her?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
That's all I was focused on on the way back.
That's the only thing that made it bearable, is just
trying to keep her awake and alert.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
I feel like you're a better person than I am.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
I'd like I'm I mean, I can't even imagine what
that would be like, but I guess I can understand
what you're saying where it's almost you're so focused on her.
You're not even really, I don't want to say, paying
attention to yourself, but you may not realize how bad
you are because you're so focused on her.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Yeah, I had no idea how badly burned I was.
It wasn't until I woke up from the coma that
I realized just how bad of a place I was in.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Hey, before we get to that part, I want to
say that we had talked to somebody and Matt, I
don't know. I don't know if they were friends with
you or with Lauren. But do I have this right?
And I have this memory, and if I'm wrong, I
forgive me. But I remember talking to somebody who was
friendly with the family, either like I said, your family
or Lauren's family, your wife. Didn't they put you guys
(07:46):
in different hospitals.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yes, that was my friend Daniel. He spoke with you,
actually in the room with me, and yeah, we were
ended up. So we initially went to the same hospital,
but the and it was right on shore when we
got back, but it was just a little like small
town hospital. The whole city was like thirty thousand people,
so they weren't equipped for a mass casualty event. So
(08:11):
then yeah, we got shipped to two hospitals like six
hundred miles apart.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
And so your wife goes to Hospital A, you're at
Hospital B. How and you said they did they immediately
put you into a coma.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
It was I think the next day, but I don't
remember anything after I fell asleep that night because the
eruption had happened at two eleven. And then I got
to my final hospital. I ended up staying at it
like three in the morning.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Dude, So twelve thirteen hours later, Oh my god, I can't.
I can't believe that you're that you're conscious for that long.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
I know I can't either that the first hospital wasn't
equipped for it. All they could do was wrap us
in plastic and shipp us off to bigger hospitals.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
How much of your body was burned?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
I was burned fifty three percent, and my wife has
burned twenty thirty percent.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
And I'm assumed, like when they say burned, like, I'm
assuming that's like burn burned, like like third degree burns.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
That was total burns. I think my third degree burns
are about a third, about thirty three percent. If you
look at me, I was wearing shorts and T shirt,
and exactly what wasn't covered by clothing was pretty much
completely burned.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
If I saw you now, would I be able to tell? Yes,
of course you can tell.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
It's not as dramatic as it was, like if the
early pictures of us everything was deep red. Now it's
just a little off color. And obviously there's no hair
or anything on the grass. But otherwise yet we don't
stand out too much, but we do get recognized from
time time.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
How long? How long were you in the hospital?
Speaker 2 (09:54):
So they put me into the coma that next day.
Then I woke up to summer twenty first, and then
I came back to the States on February first, and
I think my wife was a few days ahead of me.
We both came back to VCU, and then I was
there for another week and she was there for another
two weeks or so.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
How did you fly from there back to Richmond?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
So we flew the long international leg commercial because there
was just no other way to do it. So we
actually flew business class the way back, obviously separate flights,
and then I believe my wife took commercial flights the
whole way in. I took an air ambulance from Los
Angeles to Richmond.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
How is it the like do you go to check
in on the commercial flight and they're like, oh, let's
bump you up, you know what I mean? Like I
would look at you and be like, I don't how
am I supposed to make you comfortable flying from New
Zealand to America.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Luckily, the New Zealand government hooked us up and they
were able to just send us straight onto the plane
and they actually put a flight nurse with us to
make sure everything was okay for the flight.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
And then you took an air ambulance from LA to Richmond. Yes, dude,
how many surgeries did you have?
Speaker 2 (11:18):
So? Between my wife and I we ended up I
think it was somewhere between eighty and one hundreds right
over four years.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
They always say, and maybe you can, maybe you can
clarify this a little bit. And again, I've never been
through anything like that, right, Matt. Is that they have
to keep like you always hear those stories of how
they have to keep scrubbing the burn or cleaning the burn.
And I don't know if I have the phrasing right,
but does that like you know what I'm talking about?
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Yeah, So most of that was done while I was
still in a coma. But I do still remember the
first dressing change after I woke up. The dressing stuck
to my back, which is where they had taken all
the don't skin from, so it was all raw and
it was everybody as painful as that actual initial eruption.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Just because all the gauze and dressing sticks to you.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Yeah, And you said, between the two, you've had hundreds
of one hundred surgeries.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Do give or take? Yeah, So the stars keep tightening
and growing and moving and changing. So there's just constant
revisions to try and keep our flexibility. Like my wife
got it really bad. She burned her right hand on
the palm side and the back. I was lucky. I
just burned the back of my hands. So she's had
probably at least a dozen surgeries to try and keep
(12:41):
her hand in the usable state. She still has some
reduced script and range of motion, but she it still works,
so they were able to save her hand and keep
it useful. Some of the other people ended up losing fingers.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Did you lose anything, No, nope. Hey, you when you
say donor skin, do you have any idea how many
people's skin you have on your body, so.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Now it is all mine. The actual donor skin that
the cadaver skin is just uses kind of a large
band aid until you're in a stolid enough state that
they can actually they basically take a glorified vegetable peeler
to you and feel off your skin and move it around.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Jesus Christ. Yeah, so what is the is there? So
like now we're five years later, the is there any part?
Like is there like you said, your wife in one
of her hands still has a little bit of a
grip problem or a lessened grip?
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Is there? Is there? Is there anything? I don't want
to say? What's the word I'm looking for? Like you
didn't lose anything?
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Like?
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Is there anything that doesn't work you? Yeah, I don't
know what you call it.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Main thing for me good grass can't sweat, so I
can't sweat like I used to. So I used to
be like an avid runner and can't do that anymore
because I just overheat very quickly because my body can't
cool itself off as well anymore. But other than that, No,
we're incredibly incredibly lucky and unlucky.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
I guess the well, no, I would say in the
grand Yes, five years ago unlucky.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
But since then, I feel like very lucky. Dude. You're
out in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Yepkay, I feel like that could have gone a thousand
times worse.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Oh yeah, we're not many people can say they've walked
away from a volcanic corruption.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
What is the and I understand you guys have a
kid now.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Yes, this past July, we finally were able to continue
on our lives. Close that chapter and we had our
first baby.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Was there any was there any.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Not complications, anything special you had to do, just considering
both you and your wife's condition about about getting pregnant.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Luckily both of us are torsos were all spared. My
wife had one small starband on her stomach that the
doctors had to watch, but it did find baby didn't
have any problems, So we're very lucky.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
How quickly when you came out of the coma, did
you ask like, like, my nuts are okay?
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Right? That was one of the first questions there you.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Go, No, but I didn't even think of that, But
I would have asked immediately like the twig and berries
are all right?
Speaker 3 (15:36):
So the so what?
Speaker 1 (15:38):
So five years later, where where does everything? Where does
everything stand now? In terms of like, you're back to work,
you've got a kid.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Like I don't.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
I don't want to say like, hey, we we've completely
moved on, but we're in a much obviously we're in
a much better space.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
But I feel like we're in a good space.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, obviously it'll always be part
of our lives. The stars are there every day, but
it's a smaller and smaller part of our lives. But
I mean, we made it through.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
I also feel like there was a lot of community
outreach and a lot of community support.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Absolutely, our friends set up a go fund me for
us while we were in the still in New Zealand,
and tons of people tipped in. I did see several
hashtagicm yeah online.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Yes, yeah, eg so that was nice.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
I appreciate that. Yes, we've received an unbelievable law of
support from all the doctors and medical professionals. I mean,
everybody has tipped in to help us over the past
five years. It's been amazing.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Hey was there and again I'm trying to remember, so
forgive me if I get it wrong. Was there some
issue with was was Lauren's mom trying to get there?
Or was there something going on with trying to connect
the two of them early on.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Yeah, they didn't Actually something was lost in communication and
they didn't know which hospital Lauren ended up at, so
her mom just flew over to New Zealand and then
tried to figure it out from there which hospital she
was in. Oh my gosh, because there was just so
much going on that they lost track of who was where, how.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Many how many people were on the were on the
island when the when the eruption went, I want.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
To say it was forty six if I remember right.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
And is there is there a I mean, I'm assuming
you two weren't the only two that suffered injuries in
the in the eruption.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Oh yeah, nobody escaped unscathed, and I think twenty one
twenty two people ended up dying and then but everybody
that was on the island got burned some degree. There
were a few that were on a different tour that
happened to be close to the shore and they were
able to jump in the water, so they were mostly spared,
but everybody else was very severely But an't.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Is there anybody else that went through what you guys
went through that?
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Like are you.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Still is there like a I don't know if it's
a group text, but is there like communication with the
with the survivors of that.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Yeah, there's actually we have a little group chat that
we just keep in touch obviously the anniversary, so chatting
back and forth a little bit since then. But most
of them are Australians and New Zealanders. There's only a
handful that were from the United States or elsewhere.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Would you say everybody that that survived. I mean, like
you said, the scars will never go away, but would
would would I look at everybody and go they came
out of this, barring the twenty one, but they came
out of this and are doing as well as Matt
and Laurin.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Or uh some dumbys, I mean some people ask their
entire families, brothers, sisters, they were only survivor. I mean
those people be I can't imagine what they're going through.
Lauren and I, in the grand scheme of things, were
extremely extremely lucky that we both survived and are in
good shape.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Man, you have a great attitude about it. I can't tell,
because like I said, I remember us talking about it.
I can't tell on your side. Five years has it
gone by quickly or has it just been an eternity.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
The surgery part was hard because, like Lauren was getting
her surgery done by a doctor at Johns Hopkins. So
we're acting to drive up to Baltimore once a month
basically for three years during COVID, and that got to
be very exhausting because then she would come back, recover
for a week and have to go back to work. Right,
(19:43):
So that part of it was very difficult. And like
I said, COVID just added a whole other level of
the accept She had to get tested beforehand, and it
made life very complicated, especially with physical therapy. But I mean,
in some ways it seems like it was forever.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Oh and now uh and now saw that's great.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Well, I'm glad.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
I'm glad that you and Lauren are doing uh, are
doing well. I'm glad that I'm glad that you saw
people hashtagy I TM online.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
That makes me happy. I hope it made you laugh,
did okay?
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Good?
Speaker 3 (20:20):
And I know, I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
I don't know where else to leave it other than
I mean, I'm I'm obviously it's five years and I
don't think you say happy anniversary, but I'm happy that
you guys are doing well.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Oh no, absolutely, we are doing very well. And I
will forever be able to want up people with great
good jokes and volcano joke.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
There you go, Hey, what's the best volcano joke you've heard?
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Ah? You put me on a slot.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
I don't have one ready, that's all right, you'll think
of it. Well, listen, Matt, please please give our best
to Lauren and Uh. I'm glad we were able to
connect up with you on the UH on the fifth anniversary.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
I hope it's a hope it's a good anniversary.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
And in talking to your your friends and the group
chat and obviously having a child now, I hope it's
a I hope it's a good anniversary.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Well, thank you very much. I appreciate that you got it.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Matt. Hey, hold on one second.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
I want to make sure we have your number in case,
well number one, in case I need volcano jokes down
the line, But if anything comes up and I need
to get in touch with you, hold tight one second, all.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Right, dude, sure you got it. Hold on one second.
Oh my god,
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