By DR. VICTOR S. SIERPINA
Stories can heal both speaker and listener. Last week, I attended an incredible event at UTMB’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in which a roomful of burn survivors met with OLLI lifestory writers who had volunteered to write down the survivors’ stories.
The stories will be collected in a book to describe the survivors’ grief, despair, shame and pain as well as their courage, love, social support, faith and the perseverance that pulled them through. These stories will chronicle the suffering, incredible challenges and how people not only survived, but thrived in their lives after serious burns. The finished anthology will be shared with every Blocker Burn Unit patient new to the trauma of being burned and to whom hearing others’ stories can bring hope.
Conceived by UTMB’s Family Medicine social worker, Amy Barrera-Kovach, who formerly spent 17 years working in the Blocker Burn Unit, it is a joint effort with OLLI at UTMB — Health. It has been funded as a two-year project by UTMB’s President’s Cabinet: “Burn Survivors’ Journeys: Real Stories of Challenges, Strength, and Triumph.”
At last week’s event, tables of attendees learned about each other. The burn survivors were of all ages and walks of life. Some were firemen who had been burned in the line of duty. Two were younger than 12. Others were family members of those who had not survived. All shared powerful lifestory vignettes. OLLI writers who have practiced their craft in lifestory groups telling their own stories now offered listening ears and generous hearts. They heard and compassionately documented the burn survivors’ tales.
All those involved will learn more about themselves and others and the end product will be a marvelous inspiration to everyone who reads the book. President’s Cabinet Award funding will make it available in print form for every patient and family member in UTMB’s Blocker Burn Unit with limited copies for others to purchase. Hopefully, an option that might be considered by the team is to publish it online so that those in burn units around the world could benefit. Making it more widely available was roundly encouraged by the burn survivors.
After last week’s meet and greet session, the writers and burn survivors will partner together for taped interviews using categories of open-ended questions to guide the interview process. After the interview and transcript preparation, each burn survivor will review the narrative for accuracy. Before publication, an editor will then review it, without changing the content.
Future activities will include group meetings for sharing stories in progress, input of stories from caregivers, and the same community of caring and support that helped burn survivors thrive.
This project promises to offer other burn victims and their families comfort, encouragement and hope. The message, “I made it through all this agony, disfigurement, multiple surgeries, pain … and so can you.”
How is that for a community effort to boost the human spirit?