Out of the Fire

On the evening of January 24th, Solomon was getting ready to televise a soccer match in his video club (a combination between a pub and a movie theater). People were arriving and the game was starting up. He didn’t want to turn off the generator with the crowd gathered so he decided to top off the generator with fuel while it was still running, a mistake that he will never make again! While filling the generator tank, gas leaked down onto the spark plug and ignited. Solomon instinctively threw the fuel container he was holding to get it away from the flames but the container struck a wall splashing fuel all down his left side. The gasoline ignited, consuming his upper body in flames. Solomon ran from the building stripping off his clothes as fast as possible. Luckily his shorts were flame-retardant which saved most of his lower body from being burned, his upper body was not as spared. Solomon had severe, second degree burns on over 40% of his body. His neck, chest, arms, and hands were the most impacted, with a few scattered burns to his lower left leg. The people in the village worked to put out the fire in the generator room and keep it from spreading to nearby homes while a man in the village with a motorbike rushed Solomon to the Po River Medical Clinic. There Jen and Diana worked to clean and bandage Solomon.
There is a huge danger for infection in injuries like Solomon’s, but he healed without complication. Solomon came to the clinic everyday for a week to have his burns washed, the blisters drained and debrided, and new dressings applied- a very painful process. Then he spent another week doing the dressing changes on his own. Now after a couple of months he is excited that the incident and the pain is behind him, and his scars are beginning to fade. He says he will never forget that the Po River Clinic was there when he needed help and he’s glad that God gave him a second chance at life. 🙂