Burn Survivor Finds New Purpose on Road to Recovery

One of the many things Amber Wilcox and her husband, Tyler, shared was a love of cooking shows and baking. Amber was always on the lookout for a dish that would change her life, and she found one – but not in a way she ever could have imagined.

One Saturday in April 2020, the Wilcoxes decided to stave off pandemic-lockdown boredom at their Ormond Beach home by trying their hand at a pumpkin dessert inspired by something they had seen on a cooking show. One of the ingredients was hot caramel, which Amber prepared. She poured it into a glass baking dish to settle, then picked it up.

“I remember thinking, moments before it happened, ‘That’s weird.’ It was sizzling and then stopped for a half moment,” she recalls. “I remember that split-second where I realized something was really wrong.”

The dish shattered, sending the hot caramel splashing across Amber’s hands and legs. The pain was excruciating and immediate, and she ran to rinse off in a cold shower. It helped, but not much, especially on her hands. It didn’t take long for a 911 call to bring an ambulance, and Amber was wheeled away for a trip to the nearest certified burn unit: Orlando Health Orlando Regional Medical Center.

Assessing the Damage

In the ambulance, the EMTs wrapped the still-suffering Amber in heat blankets – an ironic but necessary treatment. With burns over 20 percent of her body, Amber couldn’t regulate her body temperature, and the cold shower had put her at risk of hypothermia. Tyler followed them for more than an hour until they arrived at ORMC for more targeted care and a reality check from nurse practitioner Susan Smith.

“It was Susan who told me this is much worse than we thought,” Amber says. “’You’re going to be here for at least a week,’” she said.

Amber’s hands may have been in pain, but her legs were the real area of concern. The caramel had sizzled through the yoga pants she was wearing, down through the epidermis into the dermis level beneath her skin, damaging the nerve endings that would have made her pain much greater. These third-degree burns would require special care including skin grafts, and the process would be a challenging one.

Feeling (and Healing) the Burn

It wasn’t a process that Dr. Howard Smith took lightly. As one of Orlando Health’s burn specialists, he and Susan – a husband and wife team -- took charge of Amber’s care from the day she was admitted.

“A full-thickness burn, unless it’s very small in size, usually requires surgery because all that dead skin has to be replaced,” Dr. Smith explains.

You have to find hope after something like that. It's tragic, but there has to be a reason for it. I had to say this can't be for no reason.- Amber Cox

Amber’s right leg got the worst of the accident. Dr. Smith and his team at ORMC would have to take skin from Amber’s left leg and graft it onto the most severely damaged area on her other leg. It’s a procedure as painful as it sounds.

“The hardest part of the skin graft isn’t the part where the burn was,” recalls Amber, “It’s where they take the skin from, because it hurts the most.”

 Tyler was there for support, driving back and forth from Ormond Beach each day to be with her during visiting hours. Amber spent weeks “wrapped up like a mummy,” and even after she was allowed to recuperate at home, her nights were filled with unbearable itching while her wounds healed. Worst of all, she had a bleed out during the initial surgery that necessitated a replacement graft.

Through it all, Amber says that the support from Dr. Smith and the staff was a godsend, both physically and emotionally.

“Orlando Health, in my experience, that is what made such a positive experience on my recovery,” Amber says. “I truly, truly loved the nurses and doctors that worked there. And the occupational therapists and physical therapists, they are a part of our family now.”

Fight Fire with Ice? Not Necessarily

The Wilcoxes’ experience was difficult, but it was hardly unique. According to Dr. Smith, there are about 600,000 hospital admissions for burns each year across the country. A study by the American Burn Association found that over 70 percent of those burns occur at home. Hot caramel burns like Amber’s are not one of the common causes, but grease fires are – and dealing with them the right way is crucial.

“People will be cooking, they’re distracted while they’re cooking and the grease catches on fire,” Dr. Smith says. “The first thing people want to do is grab that pan and take it outside. Usually the fire gets all over the place, they slosh the grease all over themselves and have severe burns.”

“What we would really prefer is you shut off the stove. Put something over the fire. That usually puts it out and you can forget about it. We recommend fire blankets, which are easily obtainable now,” he added.

Quick and proper action after a burn can be just as essential. As Amber learned, cold water can be a tempting salve, but ice can do more harm than good.

“A little cool running water on a small burn is great,” says Dr. Smith. “But ice actually decreases the temperature too much and causes vasoconstriction, or constricting of the blood vessels that help with healing.”

Purpose Forged in Fire

Five years after the accident, Amber has her life back on track. She and Tyler now have a young son, Cru. Amber’s hands are fully healed, and she had laser surgery on her legs to reduce much of the scarring from that fateful day.

“I would say it's never going to go away,” Amber reflects. “Every day when I look at my skin, I know I've been burned. It's right there. It's changed my life. Whether I want it to or not, it has had an effect on my life.”

Certainly, one of those effects has been a heightened sense of caution. Skin graft recipients are more susceptible to skin cancer, so Amber makes sure to visit her dermatologist once a year. While her body still tends to overheat, Amber doesn’t let that stop her from attending hot yoga – with maybe an extra bottle of water.

And yes, she and her husband still whip up meals in the kitchen (using more durable bakeware).

It’s not just her own life that Amber has changed. During the most painful parts of her recovery, she found solace in online support groups through Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors, a national nonprofit dedicated to helping those with similar trauma. That connection led her to start a podcast in partnership with the society that she still continues today.

On each episode of “Girls With Grafts,” Amber and fellow burn survivor Rachel Kudlak provide a voice for the burn community through interviews with therapists, surgeons and those in recovery.

“You have to find hope after something like that,” says Amber. “It's tragic, but there has to be a reason for it. I had to say, ‘This can't be for no reason.’ There is a plan for everything so my plan was: How can I help others overcome like I've done?”