A Remarkable Recovery

Shannon Anderson of Lancaster, Pa., survives burns from a serious kitchen fire

For most of her life, Shannon Anderson battled intermittent seizures. “When they happened, it was like hitting ‘pause’ on a DVD,” says Anderson, 30, of Lancaster.

Three years ago, Anderson suffered a seizure while she was cooking dinner and fell into the flames of a gas stove. By the time her boyfriend had rushed to douse the flames, she was seriously burned over 45 percent of her body.

Her boyfriend called 9-1-1. A medical helicopter flew Anderson to the closest burn center – 60 miles away at Lehigh Valley Hospital—Cedar Crest. “Doctors said she had just a 14 percent chance of surviving the first 72 hours,” says Anderson’s mother, Barbara Race.

An emergency room team stabilized Anderson. Then surgeons, nurses and a Regional Burn Center team provided continuous care, guiding her through numerous surgeries. (“I lost count after the 20th,” Anderson says). She returned home five months later, and after follow-up visits to the Burn Recovery Center, Anderson is now fully recovered from her burns.

“Returning to the hospital is like coming home,” says Anderson, who recently toured the expanded Regional Burn Center inside the Kasych Family Pavilion. “Now when I hear about other people who are flown to Lehigh Valley Hospital, I take comfort knowing they’re in the right place.”

Care for Burns

The only burn center in our region features:

Private patient rooms with state-of-the-art infection control
Family visitation 20 hours a day
A scar management program to limit cosmetic and functional disabilities
An image enhancement program offering tattooing and makeup techniques
A Burn Recovery Center offering follow-up care, education, counseling and rehabilitation
The largest and busiest burn center in Pennsylvania, verified by the American Burn Center and American College of Surgeons

This page last updated 10/30/08 03:50 PM

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Lehigh Valley Hospital has campuses in Allentown and Bethlehem, Pa. and serves the Pennsylvania communities of Easton, Doylestown, Quakertown, Hazelton, Lehighton, Perkasie, Pottstown, Pottsville, Reading, Scranton, Wilkes Barre, Stroudsburg, and the Poconos and also Phillipsburg and Flemington, N.J., and western New Jersey. You don't have to travel to Philadelphia or New York for quality health care.