Flight to Recovery

Jesse and Child Life Therapist Lisa Marie Donovan

It was a phone call that would make any mother’s blood run cold. It came at around noontime while Julie Dreswick was at work--news that her four- month-old son, Jesse, had been badly burned in a house fire. She raced to the hospital to find that Jesse was in critical condition and, thankfully, alive. He was burned over 60 percent of his tiny body and doctors at the hospital in Syracuse, NY, where the family lives, didn't expect him to survive.

“I was in a state of shock,” Dreswick recalls. “When I got to the hospital, I didn’t know what I was going to do. To look at him, you just knew that this was not something you could handle on your own. It was really hard to conceive what we were going to do – I mean that was my baby.”

In Good Hands

Arrangements were made for mom and son to fly by jet to Shriners Hospital in Boston, the only verified pediatric burn center in New England. Since Shriners Hospitals first began advancing burn care in the 1960s, the chance of survival for children with severe burns like Jesse’s has more than doubled.

“As soon as we got here, it was an instant feeling of relief,” Dreswick said. “They huddle around you and they make sure that you are okay and know that you are not alone. When something like this happens to your child, you automatically feel guilty and that is rough. When you come in, you are broken and little by little they just rebuild you right back up and they give you hope.”

As small as he was, it was apparent that Jesse was a fighter. His first few days at Shriners were touch and go and he spent the first month at the hospital in a medically-induced coma to keep him from feeling the pain his body experienced. While pediatric burn surgeon Robert Sheridan, M.D., and the rest of the medical team worked to save his life, Shriners also helped his mother come to terms with Jesse’s condition.

The staff here is the best,” Dreswick said. “I have three other children back home and had to run back and forth. They made it possible for me to be more or less in two places at once. I would be here for four days and home for three days. It was rough, but it was what I had to do and if it wasn’t for them arranging my transportation, I wouldn’t have been able to do it and I wouldn’t have had anywhere to stay.”

Priceless Care

At Shriners Hospital – Boston, all medical treatment is provided at no charge to patients, families, insurance companies or third parties. If needed, transportation and housing accommodations are provided with assistance from local Shriners. In addition, when a child is on the acute care floor, a parent is allowed to stay in room with their child, and private family rooms are also available.

“When you first get here, you are not concerned with yourself at all, but after a few days you realize that you might need some toothpaste or a shower,” Dreswick said. “They cover everything."

A Bright Future

Despite his injuries, Jesse, now three years old, has grown into an active, friendly and talkative tyke who started preschool in September. He returns to Shriners periodically for skin graft surgeries – something that he will do until he reaches adulthood. Because scar tissue does not flex and grow with the child, periodic surgeries are needed, especially during growth spurts, to ensure he maintains mobility. Each time he comes, doctors work on at least two graft sites – a painful experience that Jessie handles with unusual pluck. “He’s a champion,” Dreswick said. “He’s the best and I don’t just say that because I’m his mom!”

While their ordeal has been difficult, Dreswick family is grateful to the Shriners team for saving Jesse’s life and giving them hope for a bright future. They are also grateful to Shriner George Hotaling for arranging their transportation.

"In the beginning, you are destroyed,” Dreswick said. “When you come here, these people are ready for whatever your situation is. They know you don’t want to be here, so they try to make you as comfortable as they can. They do wonders here. Dr. Sheridan, he’s the best, and all the nurses are just awesome. It is so reassuring to know they are here, because at first you don’t think anyone else in the world has ever felt what you are feeling or gone through. Then when you get here, you realize that they are here specifically for that reason. It is remarkable.”