Ana's story: People always ask me: "why are you so sensitive to the sun and heat? Enough already, youre exaggerating!" or they say:" You're so blind without your glasses huh, take them off once in a while" This annoys me, it doesn't upset me.

When I was 4 years old, I was caught in a fire explosion outside my home (along with another girl) I was engulfed in flames (so was the other girl) Up til this day I would never be able to describe the pain and torture a human being feels when they're burning alive. That day, the clothes I wore became one with my skin, they literally melted into my skin, my vision was of red flames and it felt like I was in another world, where pain was all there was.
By the time I was taken to the hospital, the little girl I once was had disappeared. What laid on that bed was just a lump of black crust, with eye balls. The doctors told my family that the fire had burned 100% of my body, 3 degree burns and that I would not survive. The injuries would kill me slowly in less than 6 months. They said there was no way to reverse this, but that they would try their best.

The first step was to cover my exposed bones, the skin had melted with the fire, the bones on my arms were visible. They did skin grafts on my exposes bones. And every week they would tear off burnt skin and leave my fresh inside flesh exposed, then they would cover them with skin grafts. My body was already starting to produce pus and foul smelling liquid. My breathing was almost none existent. The damage was severe. They tried skin grafts as best they could, but they had no hopes for me.
They also told my family, if by a miracle I survived, that i would be deformed and mostly blind, my skin will never grow back to its original form and that i would never grow body hair or facial hair. I remember it took 10 nurses to keep me down, the injections they would give me were horrible. I was hospitalized for 3 months and I was not improving, I was slowly withering away. I was this poor little burnt monster, with no hopes.
My grandmother made the most difficult decision one could ever make. She adviced my mom to take me out of the hospital, and that God would do the rest.

So I was taken out of the hospital and brought to my grandmas house. My grandma said to me ( i could barely hear her words) she said: we wont let you go without trying, i wont let it happen. The following day: i saw my grandma and mom and aunt bringing in basket after basket of fresh and dried Chamomile flowers. Then they would boil them in a big pot and let it cooled. They would bathe me 7 times a day with this Chamomile infused water. After each bath they would apply a gooey flower and herb concoction my grandma had made herself. Then they would apply it to my skin after each bath and leave it there for an hour.

They would only feed me the freshest chicken soup and fruits, at first they blended it. Then after a few weeks i was able to breath better. 3 months passed and I was still alive. after that 3 months passed, and My black burnt skin started to peel of slowly and fell off by itself, the fresh flesh was cleaned and treated with the chamomile water and the concoction.
After almost one year, my skin was growing back on some parts of my body , after 15 months my skull grew new smooth skin, and hair began showing. By the 2 year, I was pretty much the same old me. I had no deformities, and I had no scars, or any sign that I once was burnt.
If you look at me now, is like nothing ever happen. Im completely clean, except for the ocassional acne break out.
I'm a miracle child, and I never really thought about it, until recently. I'm lucky that God gave me an opportunity and that counts for so much. I know that not everyone gets the opportunity I got, and that means a lot to me.

Anyway, the only consequences of my severe injury is this: I only have 2 layers of skin, not 3 like most people. Therefore I burn easily and the sun really makes me sick, last year I almost had heat stroke. I'm from hot california, all summer, I avoid the sun as much as possible, if Im out in the sun more than an hour, I start feeling ill. Also, my eye sight is really poor. I need glasses 24/7. My eye doctor told me, you wont be able to drive at night. (im sensitive to neon lights, or any real bright light in general, specially at night) So i dont do it, and if I happen to be around something like that, I try to focus my mind somewhere else. Those two things are the result of the injuries i sustained as a little girl. But people don't seem to understand that.

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