After suffering serious burn injuries in a firepit accident, statistical models gave Keith Brown just a 14 percent chance of survival.
Keith, his family and faith, and the exceptional team at Regional One Health’s Firefighters Burn Center had other ideas.
Thanks to the expert care he received, Keith is getting back to the live he loves – and he’s also advocating for making sure other patients have the same access to lifesaving care that he had.
When Keith Brown arrived at Regional One Health’s Firefighters Burn Center, he had a 14 percent chance to live. He was frightened, in pain, and trying to wrap his mind around how life had changed in an instant.
It was the start of 30 days that were both an ordeal and a miracle.
“The care I received – the lifesaving care – it started as soon as I got there,” Keith said. “Within an hour, they built a fortress around me. That fortress protected me from infection, it protected me from pain, and it protected me from depression. Every day, every hour, every moment they walked the walls of that fortress to protect me.”
Keith and his wife Cary were at their lake house in Pickwick on August 1 and decided to light the firepit. “At 69 years and 10 months old, you’d think I’d be smart enough not to use gasoline as carelessly as I did,” Keith said. “We gathered wood and I poured gasoline over it. The air was flammable. When I lit it, everything ignited, and I was engulfed in flames.”
“I knew in that moment that it was bad. I told myself three things: close your eyes, don’t breathe, and stop, drop, and roll.”
Cary rushed him to the nearest hospital, a small facility in Corinth. Over 20 percent of his body was burned. His hair and beard were gone.
The team knew he needed the advanced care available at Regional One Health’s Firefighters Burn Center, the only American Burn Association-verified burn center within 200 miles of Memphis. He was airlifted to Regional One Health and taken to the burn center’s dedicated emergency room.
He would remain at the burn center for the next 30 days, about half in the ICU and half in rehabilitation. He needed surgery, daily hydrotherapy sessions, and specialized burn rehab.
Mahmoud Hassouba, MD, PhD, was Keith’s surgeon. He not only provided expert care, he helped Keith with the mental and emotional aspect of getting through a serious injury.
It was a grueling process, and Keith credits family and faith for getting him through.
His wife rarely left his side – “I don’t think I would have psychologically made it without her,” Keith said – and he was lifted by the power of prayer from friends near and far. Visions of his late parents and their enduring strength helped him cope with the pain and fear.
Equally important was the burn center team.
“They were in many ways sent by God to do this,” Keith said. “If you’re not faithful when you come to this hospital, you’ll leave faithful. If you are faithful, you’ll leave more faithful.”
Mahmoud Hassouba, MD, PhD, was Keith’s surgeon. “He told me, ‘We know how to heal your body, but you’ve got to get your mind wrapped around what’s happening.’ He was like the guy who comes in when you’re lost and says, ‘Follow me.’ I said, ‘Lead on.’ He was an angel – and earthbound angel.”
Specialized burn nurses and therapists worked with Keith daily, offering both their expertise and their compassion.
On his third or fourth night, he couldn’t sleep. During the wee hours of the morning, a nurse tiptoed in to check on him, and he let her know he was awake.
“I told her my mind was racing. She said, ‘That happens to me sometimes, and when it does, I say the Lord’s Prayer. If I’m not asleep, I say it again, and then I say it again. By that point, I don’t remember the problem I had.’ I took her advice, and I used it 10 times a day.”
After a month, Keith was finally able to go home. Since then, he’s been working to regain stamina, mobility, and strength.
Regional One Health’s Firefighters Burn Center the only American Burn Association-verified burn center within 200 miles of Memphis. Its expert team supports patients through every step of their journey, from emergency and critical care to specialized rehabilitation therapy.
He’s also been thinking a lot about what to do with his second chance.
He is back at work as a commercial insurance broker, and family remains a big focus. Keith and Cary have two grown daughters and four grandkids who live in the Memphis area: “We help with babysitting,” Keith said. “We’re happily involved in their lives.”
Along with that, Keith is committed to sharing his experience to let others know about how valuable Regional One Health is to the community and region.
“In that burn unit, I found salvation – they saved me. And it’s not just me. The guy or gal who came in before me, after me – they built a fortress around them too,” Keith said.
“It’s a hard job. In every one of those rooms, there’s someone who needs them. But today, tomorrow – they’ll do it, and they’ll do it with such grace and skill. There is more love in the caregiving than I ever could have imagined.”
For Keith, it underscores the importance of building a modernized, expanded hospital to ensure all Mid-South families can access the hope and healing he found.
“There’s a special power that comes with this place,” he said. “If you’re hurt, that is where you’ve got to go. I always thought as Memphians we’re lucky to have this facility here.”
That said, after 30 days in the burn center, Keith was all too familiar with the shortcomings of an aging, undersized facility. “It sounds like a train station below you, with the laundry and steam pipes and people moving around,” he said. “They do a remarkable job with the facility they have, but it did occur to me, ‘What could they do if they had a better facility?”
For Keith, whose family goes back nearly 200 years in Memphis, the answer is clear: building an expanded Regional One Health would give more people the chance he had to receive essential care close to the people they love.
“A new Regional One Health would be the best of both worlds. The people will always be there…and that would mean a state-of-the-art hospital would be there too,” he said.
“I’m very invested in the city and its future, and I’m proud of what we have at Regional One Health. Because of them, people like me walk out of there and go back to our families.”