Milli's Story

Interviewer:

I'm going to give you the start to a sentence and then you say it and finish it however you want. Shriners Children's is...

Milli:

Filled with opportunities.

[Title card: Milli's Story, Shriners Children's logo]

Milli:

I'm Milli and I'm here as a patient at Shriners Children's. I started coming here about 10 months ago when my accident happened. So it was a little tabletop cooker thing and you just pour a little bit of rubbing alcohol into it and you light it and there's just a little flame. But sometimes rubbing alcohol makes invisible flames and that's exactly what happened and it just shots flames straight at me. I just remember I closed my eyes and I just stood there in shock, like, "What is happening?" I really did think I was going to die because I've never been in that situation and I've never really thought about catching on fire. So it was very scary. To me, my dad is a very strong person and he doesn't like to show emotions around me because he wants to be that strong person in my life. But I'm sure he was very upset and scared for my wellbeing and Shriners Children's, they were able to talk to him, staff were able to talk to him and explain to him that everything's going to be okay.

And he's my support, but Shriners Children's is his support. When I come here, I feel, oh goodness, I feel a lot of things. I feel very grateful that I have just so many amazing people here, the staff and even the patients. Everyone here is just so kind. I get overwhelmed with happiness when I'm here. It's crazy. Most people are like, "No, why would I want to go to the hospital?" But I like it here. I would stay. [inaudible 00:02:01] has really talked to me about confidence, so that's really helped a lot with just how I view myself. And they've helped me with the surgeries. It's helped a lot with being able to move even and just looking a lot better. A lot of people don't even notice it when they first see me.

At first, it felt like my quality of life was not as good. It felt like it was altered, but I see now that it's more of an opportunity that I've learned so much here about myself and about my confidence, my self-worth. So I feel like my quality of life has even gotten better in a way. I have something different about me than everyone else. A lot of people see me as beautiful with my burns because it's just something that not everybody has. Coming here, it makes me understand that even with, without my burns, I'm beautiful and I have an amazing personality. And I'm starting to realize that about my self-worth is that I'm a good person. It makes me feel a lot better just being here around this good support system. I want future Milli to know that I'm proud of her because I mean, it took a lot to recover physically and emotionally from the trauma, from the entire thing and future Milli needs to know that she did an amazing job.