INDIANAPOLIS — A few months ago, Dean Jones didn’t know if he would ever walk again.
“I heard everything, like, ‘I thought you were going to lose your leg,’” Jones said.
Last October, Jones was smoking brisket for a party outside his North Vernon home when he tripped on his grandkids’ toys heading inside. That’s when he accidentally pulled the smoker on top of his right leg, sending about a half gallon of 250-degree drippings onto his skin.
“It’s a pain I’ve never experienced before. There is no way to explain it,” Jones said.
After going to his local emergency room, Jones was quickly referred to Ascension St. Vincent’s new burn center in Indianapolis. It’s located at its flagship campus on West 86th Street. There are only a few like it in the state.
“Initially, when we brought him in for pain control, we had to get him comfortable. From there, we had to look at the wounds. Then at that point, we decided to take him to the operating room to remove some of the tissue that was not healthy anymore,” said Dr. Jeffrey Gibbs, medical director of Ascension St. Vincent’s Burn Center.
With the center opening last September, Jones was one of their first patients. He received two surgeries, including skin grafts.
After the treatment, Jones was on the road to recovery and got home just in time to carry on one of his favorite holiday traditions — playing “Dancing Santa.”
“The fact that I was able to play Santa this year. I wasn’t sure if that was going to happen or not,” Jones said.
He also went back to work three weeks after his surgery.
“It’s been a miracle. I really thought my life was going to be changed for the rest of my life and, as I said, I am back doing everything I want to do,” Jones said.
The new burn center has eight beds and can treat minor to life-threatening burns for adults and kids. It also has two hydrotherapy rooms and special physical therapy areas.
“So there is pretty much nothing that you can bring to our doorstep that we can’t handle,” Gibbs said. “If we have a house fire where a family is involved. The whole family can come to our unit and have mom and dad right next to the kids. Typically, our patients stay in the burn unit until they are discharged home or they are discharged to rehab.”
With this new addition, Ascension St. Vincent Hospital is now an adult and pediatric trauma center as well as an adult and pediatric burn center.
Since the new center opened, Gibbs said they have received patients from across Indiana and outside of the state.
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