Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
So I was reading a story about this kid, James Culata.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I hope I'm pronouncing his name right. C U l
a t ta.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Reminds me of a Felicia Felicia Colada.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
What did she like to do? Dianea?
Speaker 4 (00:17):
I mean, that's Britney's old assistant.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I don't think these people are related to it.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Would they were? Spell his name?
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Wait? Aunt fee the Uh?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
No, No, his name is James Culada.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Y spell it c U l a tt she was
o tta?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Oh really? Oh well, maybe she did that for he
show biz.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Maybe she did.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
James has a father. His name is Richard.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
He has a mother, her name is Chandra, and I
believe there are three other Kulata children. So James Kolatta,
eighteen years old, goes to Herndon High School.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I don't know if we'll track him down. I have
no idea.
Speaker 5 (01:01):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Maybe we tracked down Richard, maybe we tracked down Chandra.
But this kid's story Jesus Christ. So anyway, last summer,
he is on a family he's on a family vacation.
They are out in Utah and he is, like I
(01:24):
want to say, like they're going to like a family reunion,
or something like that, right, And while they're out there,
he's also looking at colleges, so they they kind of
tied a couple of things together. Also, while they're out there,
they decide they're going to go for a hike, which
is fine, right whatever. So anyway, they're hiking and it
(01:45):
sounds like, I don't know where does it say this
last June, So that's last summer.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
James Kulata.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Was hiking with his family in orum Utah when he
stepped on a rock. And when he stepped on the rock,
just while hiking, right, the ground started to like break
away underneath him, and like he was thrown off balance.
He's trying to start reaching for other things and then
everything gave way. And by the way, it's not like
(02:16):
he was I think you could see a little bit
of water or something when he was walking, but.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
He had no idea what he was in for.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
He ends up tumbling into an underground hot spring of
scalding water and mud. I don't know what they call that,
Like there are natural hot springs. Yeah, I don't know
what you call what he stepped on.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
You mentioned mud, Would this be a mud pot? I
believe that's a thing.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Mud pot, mud pot. I'm not sure. I'm not sure.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
I know hot pots, which I love, and those are
very hot. Are you ready for this? So here you go,
eighteen year old kid. I was terrified. I had never
experienced that much pain in my life. I didn't know
you could feel that much pain. The spring where the
(03:18):
what you call it a mudpot?
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Well? I again, I don't know if this is exactly that,
but those sounds similar.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Kristen, Will you do me a favor?
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Well, you see, if you can find me somebody who
knows about mudpots, leave a line open for any of
the Colados.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
I'm sure they go by other names too, not the family.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Oh mudpots. Yeah, so somebody who knows about mudpots please,
and again, leave a line open for James Chandra or
Richard Kolata or Felicia.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Diane.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
The water, the mud and water that he fell into, yeah,
two hundred degrees, poor kid, water boils at two twelve,
two hundred degrees. Oh, I didn't give the number eight
six six to Elliott eight six six two three five
five four six eight mud pots or or whatever else
(04:15):
they're called, or a colada. He tried to swim, but
the ground was too unstable and like every time he
would reach for like like solid land or what he
thought was solid land, it would break away.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Very scary.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Brace yourself.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Eventually the skin had melted off both of his hands.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
God, what's wrong?
Speaker 3 (04:39):
You know yesterday we had an issue with people not
turning down the radio fast enough. Right, you gave half
a second.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Why would you turn the radio down for that?
Speaker 1 (04:47):
I'm just I'm just getting ready to tell you there's
some grim details coming up.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
By the way, I'll tell you this right now.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Like I wouldn't be asking for James to call if
this goes horribly wrong.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
I mean it's horribly wrong, don't get me wrong.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Anyway, the skin had melted off both his hands, and
he had suffered burns on about half of his body.
Eventually he was able to be pulled to safety. Quote
there was blood everywhere. He drank two gallons of water
while he waited for a life flight helicopter to take
him to the University of Utah Helts Burn Center in
(05:23):
Salt Lake City.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
His dad, Richard, thought, no chance he ever walks again.
Brace yourself.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Doctors had to remove the burned skin from the bottom
half of his body. Then they had to strip the
skin that had not been burned from his belly button
to his neck, and then stretched that to make grafts
to help herpa place what he had lost.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
So wait, did they that? I can't even picture that.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
His dad said he looked like a mummy. Well that's
his dad. I didn't say. So.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Am I to understand he loses belly button?
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Right?
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
So he loses all of this skin. It just melts
off in his hands.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Did they remove the rest of his skin and then
stretch it to cover his whole body?
Speaker 3 (06:26):
That's what you said. I've never heard of that.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Now, how do you remove how do you remove this part?
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Where are you pointing his upper body?
Speaker 5 (06:36):
Like?
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Did they take like I'm assuming they didn't take his
face off? But do they?
Speaker 4 (06:43):
I can't even grasp how that works.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Hey, Also, christ, if you find me a burned person,
not a burned person, but somebody who knows about burns,
well maybe it is a burned person.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
I mean, hell, James is a burned person, but not
in the scorn sense.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Correct anyway, So am I to believed?
Speaker 5 (07:00):
You know?
Speaker 1 (07:00):
How like you'll see like like if you.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Like, they skin it out?
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Yesterday we were talking about where they took all the
skin off those animals. Is that what they did to him? Well?
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Do they strip all the skin off his body?
Speaker 6 (07:19):
No?
Speaker 1 (07:19):
No, I know, I know, being used and stretched? You said,
but is he is he laying in the hospital with
no skin on?
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Oh? You said that he looked like a mummy. So
he's covered in gauze. Yeah, but no skin as he's healing.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Oh man, Well, if they had to take it or
did they like this is gone?
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Are they and he's laying in his bed, are.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
They like like like where his belly is?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Or are they just taking that skin and pull in
it and pulling it or do they cut it?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Like? Is he essentially like he's got skin from the
neck up and they've got the rest and it's like
they're playing tug of war with his skin to stretch
it out, like they're making pizza.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
I imagine it's like patch work. You know how horrible
is that?
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Remember, we're grateful he said, this point has survived. So yes,
it's a horrible procedure that probably took hours and days
or whatever, but he's still with us.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
He spent two months in a hospital in Salt Lake City,
which doesn't seem like much.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
You're out, you would expect it to be longer.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Yeah, maybe it's he's got age on his side.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
You know.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Well, I mean they do say after two months.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
It's not like after two months they were like, well,
your new skin fits great. But finally he was able
to fly back to DC, and I guess they said
that he spent like then he was working with like
one of I think it was like one of the
Anova hospitals.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
I don't know which one.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
They said that like each like he did ninety minutes
a day to get to the hospital. So he misses.
Remember that's June. He's going into a senior year. Yeah,
he missed the entire first half of his senior year.
He was doing online classes and stuff like that, but
he couldn't go to school.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
So when he returned, he was still in pretty bad shape.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Oh yeah, yeah, no, no, that's what I mean. It
wasn't like they were like, all right, well, all good, but.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
He wasn't hospitalized. He just probably had to make frequent
visits to hospitals and maybe have more surgery.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
I think every day. I think he was going every.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Day, but coming home at night, I think.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
So, I mean, there may have been nights he stayed over.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
So anyway, now I don't know, like I know, I
don't know what he does at school, like what he's into,
like what activities other than I know that he likes
theater because I guess his junior year he was in
a production of Fiddler on the Roof, one of your favors. Yeah,
I love it, love it. I don't know if he
(09:54):
was Tevia. I don't know if he was laser Wolf.
I don't know what character he was, but it's impressive.
I know those two names.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Have you anyway, the So he did that.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
And so while he's going through his first semester, the
the the what's that department called at school, theater, theater, drama,
whatever it is, they announced that what their show is
for their senior year, another one that I love. Oh
so this school will be two for two with you footloose, Footloose.
(10:36):
So his family was like, would it be something if? Like,
that's kind of the motivator. So he anyway, fast forward right,
which it's not quick right, this kid's burned up on
all of his body, his skin melted off his body.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
He did the show?
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Are you serious?
Speaker 2 (10:54):
He got the part? Yeah? Now, they did say that like.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
As the lead Wren.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Well, good for knowing that. Yeah, he's the dude in
the show. He's the dude.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Incredible. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
And they said like when he first started, like like
this isn't me, this is his dad. His dad was
like kid walks like a penguin. Like, I don't know
how we're gonna do this.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
So he's walking in this production, he's dance dancing.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
If he's doing footlo what's.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
The dance, what's the what's the what's the Kevin Bacon dancing?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
That doesn't he do like this whole routine?
Speaker 4 (11:27):
I mean he dances through the whole movie.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Because remember in that town they tried to outlaw dancing.
I know.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
Was it was a departure for the John Liftgow that
we know and love.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
I thought maybe he was in like a wheelchair or something.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
No, you can't stage footloose in a wheelchair. Oh, how
Wren's gonna dance in a wheelchair?
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Sorry?
Speaker 3 (11:52):
No, dancing in a wheelchair would also be a problem
in the town.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yes, you can't do that, but I don't think they
did that.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Also, what are they gonna do hoist it up on
the tractor when he's playing chicken?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
I mean that you could actually do anyway. No, he's
not in a wheelchair. I just said his dad thought
it was never gonna walk again. Well, I just hold you.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
His dad said he most like a penguin. That they
didn't think he was going to be able to do
the part. Now I'm going to glance down and make
sure that he actually was dancing. Bear with me for
a moment, because that's gonna be awkward.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
I see the cast picture of them, and.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
He is Are they holding him up?
Speaker 4 (12:31):
No? No, no, he is at the front of the pack
of students and he is dancing.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
When they announced the show, he couldn't even stand after
six months of grueling rehab seven surgeries. He got on
stage and starred as Ran McCormick. Thank you, Kevin Bacon's
character from the nineteen eighty four movie Dude.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
How about that in this kid like he's a freaking nature.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Well, I don't know if I did describe him that way.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Six months before that he's laying in a hot pot,
not a hot pot and not a pot pot.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Yeah, did we confirm that's what that is?
Speaker 2 (13:24):
I don't know. Kristen was working on that anyway.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
They said just they talked to his family, and his
family's like to see him up there dancing on stages
and they got teary eyed.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
I would too, even if your child didn't go through that.
When you see them in that setting performing, you start
to obviously be overcome with emotion.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
By the way, you know what sounds.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Horrible all of me that he had to go through, well,
four hours of physical therapy a day.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
That sounds miserable.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
But you said that this musical was the motivation. Yeah,
so to have that finish line, you if you're gonna
get there, you have to go through that.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
He said.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
All of his friends were the ones that encourage him
to go out for the part of Ren. He's like,
I never thought I'd get the role, and his dad didn't.
His dad was like, mok, fuck a penguin. Said, I'm
so glad I did. I made so many friends. I
strengthened my relationships. His parents are thankful that the director,
don't know who that was, took a risk in casting
(14:34):
James Kolatta at the time. Yeah, at the time he auditioned,
he was quote walking like a penguin.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Isn't that crazy?
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Definitely an inspirational tale. So now as is the story
of a footlooth.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Absolutely, remember I wanted to know if Footloose was known
around the world in India when Mark was over there,
all of the people that I wanted him to blast
it out the window?
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Please, don't you want to know the part?
Speaker 2 (15:04):
That's cool though? Oh also like one of the performances
his burn team was there.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Oh that's nice.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
That has to motivate them in their job to realize
when it looks like it's the darkest roads ahead, that
the dawn may be not too far off.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
He now plans to attend Utah Valley University, where he
had been planning to visit before the injuries. He's considering
becoming a physical therapist and working with other burn victory.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Look at that.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
That's freaking awesome.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Now was that totally a bike a switch?
Speaker 2 (15:40):
It was one of the schools that he was looking at.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
I mean to study with patients.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Well, probably none of that. Why would he be interested
in burn patients? Well that sounds horrible.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Works no, no, but I mean a victim of a fire.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Yeah, I know, but I don't know that that's what
his interest was. Where am I going?
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Line four? Is it really? Hello?
Speaker 5 (16:07):
Hello?
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Is this Richard Kalata.
Speaker 5 (16:09):
It is Richard kala.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Hey, what's going on?
Speaker 5 (16:12):
Dad?
Speaker 2 (16:12):
How are you?
Speaker 5 (16:13):
I'm great. I was getting ready for work and somebody said, hey,
you really need to be listening in right now, and
so here I.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Am, dude, the story of James your kid. Oh my god,
it's freaking amazing.
Speaker 5 (16:26):
It's pretty it's pretty amazing story. That is.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Hey, so will you answered the last question we had?
Speaker 1 (16:31):
I was reading about, like now he wants to move
forward and go to that school in Utah? It worked
was he was he did he want to get into
physical therapy and working with burn patients.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Prior to all of this happening, you know.
Speaker 5 (16:45):
He's always been interested in in, you know, physical therapy,
helping people, you know, use their bodies better. No thought
about doing anything with burned patients. I honestly, we didn't
even really know anything about people had been burned victims
until this happened. But when he was in the hospital,
there were several of the uh, you know, the nurses,
(17:07):
the doctors who had been burn victims themselves, and those
were some of the most inspiring people for him because
they were able He was able to see that they
were able to move on and and have you know,
amazing lives even after these crazy injuries. And so that
really inspired him to want to think about how he
could do something similar for uh, you know, for for
other other burn victims.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Hey, Richard, when you guys were out go back a
year right when he when he went in? Is it
is that called a mud pot that he fell into.
Speaker 5 (17:36):
Yeah, somethings to call it hot pots or they they
have different sort of names for him. But it's essentially
just an under boiling water that's underground under just a
really sin layer of dirt on top, and so it
looks just like I mean, it just looks just like
regular ground, but underneath it's all it's all boiling kind
of boiling mud.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
But that's what I was going to say in reading
about who was when when when he was when he
was hiking, who was with him?
Speaker 5 (18:01):
Yeah, so we our whole family was there. But he
and his little cousin had gone up to hike, had
gone up ahead, and so they were, you know, probably
ten minutes up ahead of us on just a little
just a little trail. You know, it just looked like
a normal trail and there was a little stream and
he hopped over to the other side, and when he
hopped over to the other side, that's when the ground
(18:23):
just sort of broke broke out.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
And they make it sound like like at first like
whatever rock or whatever he landed on was still there,
but like you said, the ground goes. It almost sounds
like a bad cartoon or a bad movie, where like
you're almost like perch as the entire ground disappears from
around you.
Speaker 5 (18:42):
Yeah, well really, And actually one of the things that
he talked about is when he was trying to get out,
as he would sort of step forward, you know, try
to step forward, it would keep caving in, and so
he finally was able to kind of roll himself out
and get out of it. But it was it was
it was pretty scary.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
At what point did you get to where he was?
Speaker 5 (19:02):
We probably got there, you know, it was probably only
a few minutes afterwards. But by the time we got there,
he was in shock. Most of his skin had had
completely disintegrated, and it was pretty scary.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Can I ask you this, like I have I have
two kids on my own, right, I can't imagine rolling
up on that and seeing your kid in that condition. Like, listen,
my kids have gotten hurt but nothing like I mean nothing, nothing,
nothing like that. How do you roll up on that
and you have to feel completely helpless?
Speaker 5 (19:39):
I mean, as a parent, it's the worst possible thing
I ever could have experienced. And my wife and I
were there and just and we thought we thought he
might be dying, right, We didn't know he was having
trouble breathing, he was, he couldn't move. We just we
thought it might have been, you know, the end of
the end of the road.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
How long did it take for life light to get there?
Speaker 5 (20:03):
Well, we were kind of in the middle of nowhere.
We were in southern Utah where we'd been hiking. Fortunately,
and we have a faith tradition in our family, so
we feel like we were blessed. We happened to be
in an area that had cell reception and so we
were able to call and it took about it took
about a half an hour.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Oh my god, that's not to feel like a lifetime.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
It felt like a lifetime. We had wonderful nine to
one to one teams that were helping coach us through,
helping do all we could do, but it felt like
it felt like hours. In fact, when I looked at
the time, stamp afterwards and saw that it had been
about forty minutes. I thought my phone was right. I
just couldn't believe that it had only been forty minutes.
It felt like it had been probably two hours.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Not the most important question but who flew with into
the hospital?
Speaker 2 (20:50):
You or your wife?
Speaker 5 (20:51):
So my wife flew into the hospital. She was able
to get in and travel with him, and then I
drove a very long four hours up to up to
the hospital from where we were hiking.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Four hours. I can't even imagine that. I can't even
imagine that. Hey, there's a part in the story, Richard
where they're talking about with James where the bottom half
of his skin was gone, and that they stretched the
skin that they could say from his belly button to
his neck. Essentially, can you can you? We were unclear
(21:27):
about that, and listen. If you don't want to talk
about it, you don't have.
Speaker 5 (21:30):
To, but it'll can I can share. James has been
pretty you know. We talked to him about whether he's
willing to share this, and he said he's willing to share,
especially if it helps other people who may be dealing
with similar situations. So so, yeah, So the way it
works is because skin is part of your immune system.
You can't actually transplant skin from from somebody else. They
(21:53):
do use donor skin, but they just use it to
prep the area. Can't ever become the permanent skin.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Is that true?
Speaker 5 (22:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so so, and that's a misconception. A
lot of people don't know that. I didn't know that.
And so the only place that you can get skin
from if you need it for for the permanent you know, grafting,
is your own body.
Speaker 6 (22:16):
So did they I'm sorry, go ahead, go ahead, no, no, no,
so I say, so what they ended doing since he
was burned up to above his waist, the only skin
that was available was obviously the top half of his body,
and so when he got to the hospital, one of
the first.
Speaker 5 (22:31):
Things they did was then actually take the skin off
the top of his body and then use that to
graft it onto the lower part of his body.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
How do they how do they? They literally cut off
the top half of his skin. So he's laying there,
he's got no skin on his body.
Speaker 5 (22:47):
Correct, Oh my god, I mean this this was and
as James has said, this is his words. He said,
you know, as painful as the accident was, the recovery process.
Those those skin graps were actually more painful. They you know,
the best I can if you ever. I hate to
(23:08):
say it this way because it sounds, you know, like
him being trite, but I mean it very seriously. They've
ever seen one of those like bodies exhibit, you know what?
Just like that's the first thing.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
That's the first thing I thought of.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
I've actually been to one of those where you go
through and you just see everything underneath the skin because
all the skin is stripped away.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
That's what James looked like.
Speaker 5 (23:26):
That's that's what he looked like. And they had him
they had him wrapped in some you know, cloth. He
looked kind of like a mummy wrapped in cloth. And
then every day, of course, they would have to pull
that off and clean everything, which was incredibly painful. And
then and then they had to have him essentially sit
and not move for several weeks until the new skin grafted,
(23:51):
and then and then slowly after that he could begin
the process of starting to walk again.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
And he's eighteen years old. I can't sit still.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Imagine an eighteen year old being told, well, you can't
move for a couple of weeks.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
Yeah, yeah, it was hard. That was really hard. There
were some you know, some up moments of just getting
through the getting through the day in the hospital there
when we were in that not allowed to move phase.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Hey can I So when they when they are grafting
the skin, like I understand where it says they had
to stretch the skin, but it's it's almost like they
would have to go through and like you were putting
on a shirt and pants, that's how they have to
put like his skin back on.
Speaker 5 (24:31):
Yeah, So what happens is obviously, if you know, if
you think about the amount of area you have to
cover on the bottom of your body with legs, you know,
and everything, that the amount of skin that he had
on the top of his body just wasn't enough. And
so they do this procedure where they they basically stretch
it out. They sort of perforate it and they stretch
(24:51):
it out so they can get up to four four
to one amount of skin coverage. So they sort of
stretch it out and then they wrap it around. They
actually sorry for your listeners, but they staple it on
and then after it gets you know, solidified, then they
go and pull the staples out and then his Casey
(25:13):
had about to eight hundred staple, So that was that
was a crazy process. But that's sort of how it works.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Does the like and now I don't want to fast
forward to through much, but does it like once they're
able to do that and they stretch everything out in
the stapling in the whole deal, does the does the
skin and does the body operate or function? I don't
know if normally is a fair word, but is it?
Are we close to normal function and activity?
Speaker 5 (25:41):
I mean, there's some things that will never quite be normal. Right,
So the way your skin sweats right, the way uh,
you know, temperature regulation won't be the same. It's it's
a very rough, sort of rough skin. It looks, you know,
it looks like a kind of kind of leathery. So
it's certainly not not the same.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
But it.
Speaker 5 (26:05):
Does keep you alive, right, It protects you. One of
the one of the biggest risks for burn victims, if
you have heard about this, is that they are a
huge risk for infection because they don't have this sort
of protective layer and so so really at that point,
they're just trying to make sure you have protection so
that you can live. And that skin even though it's
(26:26):
not beautiful, but it will do that and that's the
that's the function that it serves. And of course, you know,
we were very lucky that the graphs took in James's case.
In some cases they don't take, and then you have
to wait until the upper body skin grows out again,
and then they have to re harvest the top.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Oh my god, I can't even imagine. That.
Speaker 5 (26:47):
Very very blessed that we didn't have to do that,
that we were able to keep it all on that
first draft.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
And I know you say it's not beautiful skin, but
I mean, considering what the options and the alternatives are,
I bet it's the most beautiful skin you've ever seen.
Speaker 5 (27:01):
Oh, I mean to us, you have to you have
to understand, we we we we The skin is uh
is very precious. That the whole thing sort of makes
you take you not take a lot of things for granted.
That it makes you not take walking for granted, it
makes you not take certainly not take your skin for granted.
And how how much it you know, how how critical
(27:21):
it is to keeping you alive.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Every day and so the and I mean listen, the
story reads nice about like the goal of getting to
be in the show. At any point during that did
you did you think that's not going to happen. I mean,
at one point, you're like, he couldn't even walk when
they announced the show.
Speaker 5 (27:38):
Oh oh, I absolutely thought it wasn't going to happen.
And he said, you know, Jane is a very driven kid,
and I, you know, he told me that he was
going to audition for the show. And you know, I
had this tough yeah decision as a parent because on
one hand, I want to encourage my kid right on
the other hand, he was barely able to walk at
(27:58):
that point, and I didn't want us to him up
for failure. And so I was like, you know, are
you sure you want to do this? You like, do
you maybe you want to consider not holding it, sitting
this one out right? And but he he decided to
do it. In fairness, I have to give a huge
shout out to Scott Fumi and Brandy Weston from the
(28:20):
Herndon High School drama team who encouraged him to audition
and uh, and you know, he went for it.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
And between us, it's just us, did he do a
good job or was it like, eh.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
You know, he did it?
Speaker 1 (28:37):
He did it.
Speaker 5 (28:38):
He did such a good job, and we the really
sort of special moment is you know, obviously we knew
his story, and his close friends knew his story, but yeah,
you know, most of the people that came to the show,
we hadn't really shared the story publicly at that point.
They didn't know, and so they saw this guy just
do this amazing performance as Rend McCormick. He's an amazing dancer,
(29:01):
he's a great singer. And and then you know, afterwards,
when they they found out we had.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
We had a.
Speaker 5 (29:09):
Writer from People magazine who was a friend of somebody
in the show happened to be there and just said, hey,
what a cool you know, what a great performance. And
and then afterwards somebody mentioned, you know, you know that
he's doing that full performance in medical grade compression garments, right,
and and and it's how you know, you never would
have guessed, you never would have. The performance was done
(29:31):
so well that you just you wouldn't have known if
you didn't know the story, which is part of I
think what made it so special for us too.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Dude, it's I love the story.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
The story is amazing, and I don't know if it
grabs you as like a parent of trying to imagine
your kid goes through.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
But the story just in and of itself. Oh my god,
it's it's it's unbelievable.
Speaker 5 (29:52):
Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's certainly uh, I mean, I
I do have to say I've said this before, and
this it's a horrible thing to have happened. But if
you if you have to have a horrible thing happen, uh,
the you know, the Herndon community is a pretty uh
pretty good place for it to happen. And we just
felt like the whole community, the school, our neighbors just
(30:16):
kind of like wrap their arms around him and around
us as we were going through this, and and that
was that was, you know, really really powerful.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
I mean they were all out for the bear yesterday.
It's very busy Herndon day.
Speaker 5 (30:28):
Yes we I we that's big news.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Chairs So well, listen, Hey, Richard, I'm glad that you called.
I appreciated, Uh, tell James that that we spoke.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Dude. The story is great. I really I'm really glad
that you called.
Speaker 5 (30:44):
Oh thank you so much for mentioning. It means a
lot to us, and it means a lot to him
to be able to share the story with others. And
if anybody you know hasn't hasn't seen any of the clips,
if you go to herndon the Theater website you can
see some great clips of him dancing and and and
also to see some of the other amazing performers in
the show. It was an amazing show.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
You got it.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Hold tight, hey, hold on one second for me. Hold
let me get your shirt. Hold on one second. Well,
I feel uncomfortable. I feel uncomfortable.
So I was reading a story about this kid, James Culata.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I hope I'm pronouncing his name right. C U l
a t ta.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Reminds me of a Felicia Felicia Colada.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
What did she like to do? Dianea?
Speaker 4 (00:17):
I mean, that's Britney's old assistant.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I don't think these people are related to it.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Would they were? Spell his name?
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Wait? Aunt fee the Uh?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
No, No, his name is James Culada.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Y spell it c U l a tt she was
o tta?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Oh really? Oh well, maybe she did that for he
show biz.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Maybe she did.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
James has a father. His name is Richard.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
He has a mother, her name is Chandra, and I
believe there are three other Kulata children. So James Kolatta,
eighteen years old, goes to Herndon High School.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I don't know if we'll track him down. I have
no idea.
Speaker 5 (01:01):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Maybe we tracked down Richard, maybe we tracked down Chandra.
But this kid's story Jesus Christ. So anyway, last summer,
he is on a family he's on a family vacation.
They are out in Utah and he is, like I
(01:24):
want to say, like they're going to like a family reunion,
or something like that, right, And while they're out there,
he's also looking at colleges, so they they kind of
tied a couple of things together. Also, while they're out there,
they decide they're going to go for a hike, which
is fine, right whatever. So anyway, they're hiking and it
(01:45):
sounds like, I don't know where does it say this
last June, So that's last summer.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
James Kulata.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Was hiking with his family in orum Utah when he
stepped on a rock. And when he stepped on the rock,
just while hiking, right, the ground started to like break
away underneath him, and like he was thrown off balance.
He's trying to start reaching for other things and then
everything gave way. And by the way, it's not like
(02:16):
he was I think you could see a little bit
of water or something when he was walking, but.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
He had no idea what he was in for.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
He ends up tumbling into an underground hot spring of
scalding water and mud. I don't know what they call that,
Like there are natural hot springs. Yeah, I don't know
what you call what he stepped on.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
You mentioned mud, Would this be a mud pot? I
believe that's a thing.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Mud pot, mud pot. I'm not sure. I'm not sure.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
I know hot pots, which I love, and those are
very hot. Are you ready for this? So here you go,
eighteen year old kid. I was terrified. I had never
experienced that much pain in my life. I didn't know
you could feel that much pain. The spring where the
(03:18):
what you call it a mudpot?
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Well? I again, I don't know if this is exactly that,
but those sounds similar.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Kristen, Will you do me a favor?
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Well, you see, if you can find me somebody who
knows about mudpots, leave a line open for any of
the Colados.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
I'm sure they go by other names too, not the family.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Oh mudpots. Yeah, so somebody who knows about mudpots please,
and again, leave a line open for James Chandra or
Richard Kolata or Felicia.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Diane.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
The water, the mud and water that he fell into, yeah,
two hundred degrees, poor kid, water boils at two twelve,
two hundred degrees. Oh, I didn't give the number eight
six six to Elliott eight six six two three five
five four six eight mud pots or or whatever else
(04:15):
they're called, or a colada. He tried to swim, but
the ground was too unstable and like every time he
would reach for like like solid land or what he
thought was solid land, it would break away.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Very scary.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Brace yourself.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Eventually the skin had melted off both of his hands.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
God, what's wrong?
Speaker 3 (04:39):
You know yesterday we had an issue with people not
turning down the radio fast enough. Right, you gave half
a second.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Why would you turn the radio down for that?
Speaker 1 (04:47):
I'm just I'm just getting ready to tell you there's
some grim details coming up.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
By the way, I'll tell you this right now.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Like I wouldn't be asking for James to call if
this goes horribly wrong.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
I mean it's horribly wrong, don't get me wrong.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Anyway, the skin had melted off both his hands, and
he had suffered burns on about half of his body.
Eventually he was able to be pulled to safety. Quote
there was blood everywhere. He drank two gallons of water
while he waited for a life flight helicopter to take
him to the University of Utah Helts Burn Center in
(05:23):
Salt Lake City.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
His dad, Richard, thought, no chance he ever walks again.
Brace yourself.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Doctors had to remove the burned skin from the bottom
half of his body. Then they had to strip the
skin that had not been burned from his belly button
to his neck, and then stretched that to make grafts
to help herpa place what he had lost.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
So wait, did they that? I can't even picture that.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
His dad said he looked like a mummy. Well that's
his dad. I didn't say. So.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Am I to understand he loses belly button?
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Right?
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
So he loses all of this skin. It just melts
off in his hands.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Did they remove the rest of his skin and then
stretch it to cover his whole body?
Speaker 3 (06:26):
That's what you said. I've never heard of that.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Now, how do you remove how do you remove this part?
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Where are you pointing his upper body?
Speaker 5 (06:36):
Like?
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Did they take like I'm assuming they didn't take his
face off? But do they?
Speaker 4 (06:43):
I can't even grasp how that works.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Hey, Also, christ, if you find me a burned person,
not a burned person, but somebody who knows about burns,
well maybe it is a burned person.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
I mean, hell, James is a burned person, but not
in the scorn sense.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Correct anyway, So am I to believed?
Speaker 5 (07:00):
You know?
Speaker 1 (07:00):
How like you'll see like like if you.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Like, they skin it out?
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Yesterday we were talking about where they took all the
skin off those animals. Is that what they did to him? Well?
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Do they strip all the skin off his body?
Speaker 6 (07:19):
No?
Speaker 1 (07:19):
No, I know, I know, being used and stretched? You said,
but is he is he laying in the hospital with
no skin on?
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Oh? You said that he looked like a mummy. So
he's covered in gauze. Yeah, but no skin as he's healing.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Oh man, Well, if they had to take it or
did they like this is gone?
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Are they and he's laying in his bed, are.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
They like like like where his belly is?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Or are they just taking that skin and pull in
it and pulling it or do they cut it?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Like? Is he essentially like he's got skin from the
neck up and they've got the rest and it's like
they're playing tug of war with his skin to stretch
it out, like they're making pizza.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
I imagine it's like patch work. You know how horrible
is that?
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Remember, we're grateful he said, this point has survived. So yes,
it's a horrible procedure that probably took hours and days
or whatever, but he's still with us.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
He spent two months in a hospital in Salt Lake City,
which doesn't seem like much.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
You're out, you would expect it to be longer.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Yeah, maybe it's he's got age on his side.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
You know.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Well, I mean they do say after two months.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
It's not like after two months they were like, well,
your new skin fits great. But finally he was able
to fly back to DC, and I guess they said
that he spent like then he was working with like
one of I think it was like one of the
Anova hospitals.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
I don't know which one.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
They said that like each like he did ninety minutes
a day to get to the hospital. So he misses.
Remember that's June. He's going into a senior year. Yeah,
he missed the entire first half of his senior year.
He was doing online classes and stuff like that, but
he couldn't go to school.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
So when he returned, he was still in pretty bad shape.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Oh yeah, yeah, no, no, that's what I mean. It
wasn't like they were like, all right, well, all good, but.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
He wasn't hospitalized. He just probably had to make frequent
visits to hospitals and maybe have more surgery.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
I think every day. I think he was going every.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Day, but coming home at night, I think.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
So, I mean, there may have been nights he stayed over.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
So anyway, now I don't know, like I know, I
don't know what he does at school, like what he's into,
like what activities other than I know that he likes
theater because I guess his junior year he was in
a production of Fiddler on the Roof, one of your favors. Yeah,
I love it, love it. I don't know if he
(09:54):
was Tevia. I don't know if he was laser Wolf.
I don't know what character he was, but it's impressive.
I know those two names.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Have you anyway, the So he did that.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
And so while he's going through his first semester, the
the the what's that department called at school, theater, theater, drama,
whatever it is, they announced that what their show is
for their senior year, another one that I love. Oh
so this school will be two for two with you footloose, Footloose.
(10:36):
So his family was like, would it be something if? Like,
that's kind of the motivator. So he anyway, fast forward right,
which it's not quick right, this kid's burned up on
all of his body, his skin melted off his body.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
He did the show?
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Are you serious?
Speaker 2 (10:54):
He got the part? Yeah? Now, they did say that like.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
As the lead Wren.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Well, good for knowing that. Yeah, he's the dude in
the show. He's the dude.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Incredible. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
And they said like when he first started, like like
this isn't me, this is his dad. His dad was
like kid walks like a penguin. Like, I don't know
how we're gonna do this.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
So he's walking in this production, he's dance dancing.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
If he's doing footlo what's.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
The dance, what's the what's the what's the Kevin Bacon dancing?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
That doesn't he do like this whole routine?
Speaker 4 (11:27):
I mean he dances through the whole movie.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Because remember in that town they tried to outlaw dancing.
I know.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
Was it was a departure for the John Liftgow that
we know and love.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
I thought maybe he was in like a wheelchair or something.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
No, you can't stage footloose in a wheelchair. Oh, how
Wren's gonna dance in a wheelchair?
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Sorry?
Speaker 3 (11:52):
No, dancing in a wheelchair would also be a problem
in the town.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yes, you can't do that, but I don't think they
did that.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Also, what are they gonna do hoist it up on
the tractor when he's playing chicken?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
I mean that you could actually do anyway. No, he's
not in a wheelchair. I just said his dad thought
it was never gonna walk again. Well, I just hold you.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
His dad said he most like a penguin. That they
didn't think he was going to be able to do
the part. Now I'm going to glance down and make
sure that he actually was dancing. Bear with me for
a moment, because that's gonna be awkward.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
I see the cast picture of them, and.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
He is Are they holding him up?
Speaker 4 (12:31):
No? No, no, he is at the front of the pack
of students and he is dancing.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
When they announced the show, he couldn't even stand after
six months of grueling rehab seven surgeries. He got on
stage and starred as Ran McCormick. Thank you, Kevin Bacon's
character from the nineteen eighty four movie Dude.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
How about that in this kid like he's a freaking nature.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Well, I don't know if I did describe him that way.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Six months before that he's laying in a hot pot,
not a hot pot and not a pot pot.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Yeah, did we confirm that's what that is?
Speaker 2 (13:24):
I don't know. Kristen was working on that anyway.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
They said just they talked to his family, and his
family's like to see him up there dancing on stages
and they got teary eyed.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
I would too, even if your child didn't go through that.
When you see them in that setting performing, you start
to obviously be overcome with emotion.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
By the way, you know what sounds.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Horrible all of me that he had to go through, well,
four hours of physical therapy a day.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
That sounds miserable.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
But you said that this musical was the motivation. Yeah,
so to have that finish line, you if you're gonna
get there, you have to go through that.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
He said.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
All of his friends were the ones that encourage him
to go out for the part of Ren. He's like,
I never thought I'd get the role, and his dad didn't.
His dad was like, mok, fuck a penguin. Said, I'm
so glad I did. I made so many friends. I
strengthened my relationships. His parents are thankful that the director,
don't know who that was, took a risk in casting
(14:34):
James Kolatta at the time. Yeah, at the time he auditioned,
he was quote walking like a penguin.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Isn't that crazy?
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Definitely an inspirational tale. So now as is the story
of a footlooth.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Absolutely, remember I wanted to know if Footloose was known
around the world in India when Mark was over there,
all of the people that I wanted him to blast
it out the window?
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Please, don't you want to know the part?
Speaker 2 (15:04):
That's cool though? Oh also like one of the performances
his burn team was there.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Oh that's nice.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
That has to motivate them in their job to realize
when it looks like it's the darkest roads ahead, that
the dawn may be not too far off.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
He now plans to attend Utah Valley University, where he
had been planning to visit before the injuries. He's considering
becoming a physical therapist and working with other burn victory.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Look at that.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
That's freaking awesome.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Now was that totally a bike a switch?
Speaker 2 (15:40):
It was one of the schools that he was looking at.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
I mean to study with patients.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Well, probably none of that. Why would he be interested
in burn patients? Well that sounds horrible.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Works no, no, but I mean a victim of a fire.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Yeah, I know, but I don't know that that's what
his interest was. Where am I going?
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Line four? Is it really? Hello?
Speaker 5 (16:07):
Hello?
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Is this Richard Kalata.
Speaker 5 (16:09):
It is Richard kala.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Hey, what's going on?
Speaker 5 (16:12):
Dad?
Speaker 2 (16:12):
How are you?
Speaker 5 (16:13):
I'm great. I was getting ready for work and somebody said, hey,
you really need to be listening in right now, and
so here I.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Am, dude, the story of James your kid. Oh my god,
it's freaking amazing.
Speaker 5 (16:26):
It's pretty it's pretty amazing story. That is.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Hey, so will you answered the last question we had?
Speaker 1 (16:31):
I was reading about, like now he wants to move
forward and go to that school in Utah? It worked
was he was he did he want to get into
physical therapy and working with burn patients.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Prior to all of this happening, you know.
Speaker 5 (16:45):
He's always been interested in in, you know, physical therapy,
helping people, you know, use their bodies better. No thought
about doing anything with burned patients. I honestly, we didn't
even really know anything about people had been burned victims
until this happened. But when he was in the hospital,
there were several of the uh, you know, the nurses,
(17:07):
the doctors who had been burn victims themselves, and those
were some of the most inspiring people for him because
they were able He was able to see that they
were able to move on and and have you know,
amazing lives even after these crazy injuries. And so that
really inspired him to want to think about how he
could do something similar for uh, you know, for for
other other burn victims.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Hey, Richard, when you guys were out go back a
year right when he when he went in? Is it
is that called a mud pot that he fell into.
Speaker 5 (17:36):
Yeah, somethings to call it hot pots or they they
have different sort of names for him. But it's essentially
just an under boiling water that's underground under just a
really sin layer of dirt on top, and so it
looks just like I mean, it just looks just like
regular ground, but underneath it's all it's all boiling kind
of boiling mud.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
But that's what I was going to say in reading
about who was when when when he was when he
was hiking, who was with him?
Speaker 5 (18:01):
Yeah, so we our whole family was there. But he
and his little cousin had gone up to hike, had
gone up ahead, and so they were, you know, probably
ten minutes up ahead of us on just a little
just a little trail. You know, it just looked like
a normal trail and there was a little stream and
he hopped over to the other side, and when he
hopped over to the other side, that's when the ground
(18:23):
just sort of broke broke out.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
And they make it sound like like at first like
whatever rock or whatever he landed on was still there,
but like you said, the ground goes. It almost sounds
like a bad cartoon or a bad movie, where like
you're almost like perch as the entire ground disappears from
around you.
Speaker 5 (18:42):
Yeah, well really, And actually one of the things that
he talked about is when he was trying to get out,
as he would sort of step forward, you know, try
to step forward, it would keep caving in, and so
he finally was able to kind of roll himself out
and get out of it. But it was it was
it was pretty scary.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
At what point did you get to where he was?
Speaker 5 (19:02):
We probably got there, you know, it was probably only
a few minutes afterwards. But by the time we got there,
he was in shock. Most of his skin had had
completely disintegrated, and it was pretty scary.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Can I ask you this, like I have I have
two kids on my own, right, I can't imagine rolling
up on that and seeing your kid in that condition. Like, listen,
my kids have gotten hurt but nothing like I mean nothing, nothing,
nothing like that. How do you roll up on that
and you have to feel completely helpless?
Speaker 5 (19:39):
I mean, as a parent, it's the worst possible thing
I ever could have experienced. And my wife and I
were there and just and we thought we thought he
might be dying, right, We didn't know he was having
trouble breathing, he was, he couldn't move. We just we
thought it might have been, you know, the end of
the end of the road.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
How long did it take for life light to get there?
Speaker 5 (20:03):
Well, we were kind of in the middle of nowhere.
We were in southern Utah where we'd been hiking. Fortunately,
and we have a faith tradition in our family, so
we feel like we were blessed. We happened to be
in an area that had cell reception and so we
were able to call and it took about it took
about a half an hour.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Oh my god, that's not to feel like a lifetime.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
It felt like a lifetime. We had wonderful nine to
one to one teams that were helping coach us through,
helping do all we could do, but it felt like
it felt like hours. In fact, when I looked at
the time, stamp afterwards and saw that it had been
about forty minutes. I thought my phone was right. I
just couldn't believe that it had only been forty minutes.
It felt like it had been probably two hours.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Not the most important question but who flew with into
the hospital?
Speaker 2 (20:50):
You or your wife?
Speaker 5 (20:51):
So my wife flew into the hospital. She was able
to get in and travel with him, and then I
drove a very long four hours up to up to
the hospital from where we were hiking.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Four hours. I can't even imagine that. I can't even
imagine that. Hey, there's a part in the story, Richard
where they're talking about with James where the bottom half
of his skin was gone, and that they stretched the
skin that they could say from his belly button to
his neck. Essentially, can you can you? We were unclear
(21:27):
about that, and listen. If you don't want to talk
about it, you don't have.
Speaker 5 (21:30):
To, but it'll can I can share. James has been
pretty you know. We talked to him about whether he's
willing to share this, and he said he's willing to share,
especially if it helps other people who may be dealing
with similar situations. So so, yeah, So the way it
works is because skin is part of your immune system.
You can't actually transplant skin from from somebody else. They
(21:53):
do use donor skin, but they just use it to
prep the area. Can't ever become the permanent skin.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Is that true?
Speaker 5 (22:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so so, and that's a misconception. A
lot of people don't know that. I didn't know that.
And so the only place that you can get skin
from if you need it for for the permanent you know, grafting,
is your own body.
Speaker 6 (22:16):
So did they I'm sorry, go ahead, go ahead, no, no, no,
so I say, so what they ended doing since he
was burned up to above his waist, the only skin
that was available was obviously the top half of his body,
and so when he got to the hospital, one of
the first.
Speaker 5 (22:31):
Things they did was then actually take the skin off
the top of his body and then use that to
graft it onto the lower part of his body.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
How do they how do they? They literally cut off
the top half of his skin. So he's laying there,
he's got no skin on his body.
Speaker 5 (22:47):
Correct, Oh my god, I mean this this was and
as James has said, this is his words. He said,
you know, as painful as the accident was, the recovery process.
Those those skin graps were actually more painful. They you know,
the best I can if you ever. I hate to
(23:08):
say it this way because it sounds, you know, like
him being trite, but I mean it very seriously. They've
ever seen one of those like bodies exhibit, you know what?
Just like that's the first thing.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
That's the first thing I thought of.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
I've actually been to one of those where you go
through and you just see everything underneath the skin because
all the skin is stripped away.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
That's what James looked like.
Speaker 5 (23:26):
That's that's what he looked like. And they had him
they had him wrapped in some you know, cloth. He
looked kind of like a mummy wrapped in cloth. And
then every day, of course, they would have to pull
that off and clean everything, which was incredibly painful. And
then and then they had to have him essentially sit
and not move for several weeks until the new skin grafted,
(23:51):
and then and then slowly after that he could begin
the process of starting to walk again.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
And he's eighteen years old. I can't sit still.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Imagine an eighteen year old being told, well, you can't
move for a couple of weeks.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
Yeah, yeah, it was hard. That was really hard. There
were some you know, some up moments of just getting
through the getting through the day in the hospital there
when we were in that not allowed to move phase.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Hey can I So when they when they are grafting
the skin, like I understand where it says they had
to stretch the skin, but it's it's almost like they
would have to go through and like you were putting
on a shirt and pants, that's how they have to
put like his skin back on.
Speaker 5 (24:31):
Yeah, So what happens is obviously, if you know, if
you think about the amount of area you have to
cover on the bottom of your body with legs, you know,
and everything, that the amount of skin that he had
on the top of his body just wasn't enough. And
so they do this procedure where they they basically stretch
it out. They sort of perforate it and they stretch
(24:51):
it out so they can get up to four four
to one amount of skin coverage. So they sort of
stretch it out and then they wrap it around. They
actually sorry for your listeners, but they staple it on
and then after it gets you know, solidified, then they
go and pull the staples out and then his Casey
(25:13):
had about to eight hundred staple, So that was that
was a crazy process. But that's sort of how it works.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Does the like and now I don't want to fast
forward to through much, but does it like once they're
able to do that and they stretch everything out in
the stapling in the whole deal, does the does the
skin and does the body operate or function? I don't
know if normally is a fair word, but is it?
Are we close to normal function and activity?
Speaker 5 (25:41):
I mean, there's some things that will never quite be normal. Right,
So the way your skin sweats right, the way uh,
you know, temperature regulation won't be the same. It's it's
a very rough, sort of rough skin. It looks, you know,
it looks like a kind of kind of leathery. So
it's certainly not not the same.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
But it.
Speaker 5 (26:05):
Does keep you alive, right, It protects you. One of
the one of the biggest risks for burn victims, if
you have heard about this, is that they are a
huge risk for infection because they don't have this sort
of protective layer and so so really at that point,
they're just trying to make sure you have protection so
that you can live. And that skin even though it's
(26:26):
not beautiful, but it will do that and that's the
that's the function that it serves. And of course, you know,
we were very lucky that the graphs took in James's case.
In some cases they don't take, and then you have
to wait until the upper body skin grows out again,
and then they have to re harvest the top.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Oh my god, I can't even imagine. That.
Speaker 5 (26:47):
Very very blessed that we didn't have to do that,
that we were able to keep it all on that
first draft.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
And I know you say it's not beautiful skin, but
I mean, considering what the options and the alternatives are,
I bet it's the most beautiful skin you've ever seen.
Speaker 5 (27:01):
Oh, I mean to us, you have to you have
to understand, we we we we The skin is uh
is very precious. That the whole thing sort of makes
you take you not take a lot of things for granted.
That it makes you not take walking for granted, it
makes you not take certainly not take your skin for granted.
And how how much it you know, how how critical
(27:21):
it is to keeping you alive.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Every day and so the and I mean listen, the
story reads nice about like the goal of getting to
be in the show. At any point during that did
you did you think that's not going to happen. I mean,
at one point, you're like, he couldn't even walk when
they announced the show.
Speaker 5 (27:38):
Oh oh, I absolutely thought it wasn't going to happen.
And he said, you know, Jane is a very driven kid,
and I, you know, he told me that he was
going to audition for the show. And you know, I
had this tough yeah decision as a parent because on
one hand, I want to encourage my kid right on
the other hand, he was barely able to walk at
(27:58):
that point, and I didn't want us to him up
for failure. And so I was like, you know, are
you sure you want to do this? You like, do
you maybe you want to consider not holding it, sitting
this one out right? And but he he decided to
do it. In fairness, I have to give a huge
shout out to Scott Fumi and Brandy Weston from the
(28:20):
Herndon High School drama team who encouraged him to audition
and uh, and you know, he went for it.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
And between us, it's just us, did he do a
good job or was it like, eh.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
You know, he did it?
Speaker 1 (28:37):
He did it.
Speaker 5 (28:38):
He did such a good job, and we the really
sort of special moment is you know, obviously we knew
his story, and his close friends knew his story, but yeah,
you know, most of the people that came to the show,
we hadn't really shared the story publicly at that point.
They didn't know, and so they saw this guy just
do this amazing performance as Rend McCormick. He's an amazing dancer,
(29:01):
he's a great singer. And and then you know, afterwards,
when they they found out we had.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
We had a.
Speaker 5 (29:09):
Writer from People magazine who was a friend of somebody
in the show happened to be there and just said, hey,
what a cool you know, what a great performance. And
and then afterwards somebody mentioned, you know, you know that
he's doing that full performance in medical grade compression garments, right,
and and and it's how you know, you never would
have guessed, you never would have. The performance was done
(29:31):
so well that you just you wouldn't have known if
you didn't know the story, which is part of I
think what made it so special for us too.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Dude, it's I love the story.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
The story is amazing, and I don't know if it
grabs you as like a parent of trying to imagine
your kid goes through.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
But the story just in and of itself. Oh my god,
it's it's it's unbelievable.
Speaker 5 (29:52):
Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's certainly uh, I mean, I
I do have to say I've said this before, and
this it's a horrible thing to have happened. But if
you if you have to have a horrible thing happen, uh,
the you know, the Herndon community is a pretty uh
pretty good place for it to happen. And we just
felt like the whole community, the school, our neighbors just
(30:16):
kind of like wrap their arms around him and around
us as we were going through this, and and that
was that was, you know, really really powerful.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
I mean they were all out for the bear yesterday.
It's very busy Herndon day.
Speaker 5 (30:28):
Yes we I we that's big news.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Chairs So well, listen, Hey, Richard, I'm glad that you called.
I appreciated, Uh, tell James that that we spoke.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Dude. The story is great. I really I'm really glad
that you called.
Speaker 5 (30:44):
Oh thank you so much for mentioning. It means a
lot to us, and it means a lot to him
to be able to share the story with others. And
if anybody you know hasn't hasn't seen any of the clips,
if you go to herndon the Theater website you can
see some great clips of him dancing and and and
also to see some of the other amazing performers in
the show. It was an amazing show.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
You got it.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Hold tight, hey, hold on one second for me. Hold
let me get your shirt. Hold on one second. Well,
I feel uncomfortable. I feel uncomfortable.
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