Carlin’s Chris Hyatt: Inspiring a Community
Posted November 20th, 2008
For many young men and women, the summer between their Junior and Senior year of school is spent working to earn money for their next big step in life, attending college.
For Chris Hyatt of Carlin, that’s how his summer began. At 16, Chris was a hard working, three sport athlete; the one to make his friends laugh, the guy who typically wore a smile everywhere he went.
Chris took a job that would pay him well, for 16, as he planned to earn money for one of the colleges interested in him for basketball. On June 17th, Chris’ first day of work, life as he had known it changed drastically.
He was working with methanol, a very flammable chemical, in the process of making windshield washer fluid. The guy he was working with thought it necessary to show Chris just how flammable and ran a lighter across the vat of liquid. The container exploded and Chris took the force of the blast, fire and heat. He was able to cover most of his face, which received first and second degree burns, but his torso and under side of his arms received third degree burns.
Earl, Chris’ dad, rode in the ambulance to Elko General Hospital as Chris was conscience and able to tell him what happened. From Elko, he was flown to the University of Utah Burn Center.
Chris spent the next month in Salt Lake receiving treatment. His doctors initially told the family he would have to be in the ICU for 30 days and on the burn floor at least two more weeks; he would likely miss the beginning of his senior year of schooland football was out of the question. He would have to wait for basketball to participate in his senior season.
This wasn’t good enough for Chris and he set an aggressive goal to be home by July 27th. (A detailed account of Chris’ time at the Burn Center and his recovery process there can be found by clicking here. Family friend Melissa Harmon kept a blog of his amazing recovery process.)
Chris applied the same tenacious work ethic to his healing as he does to his sports and academics. When he wasn’t talking with numerous visitors and friends that made the 500 mile round trip to show their support, Chris used his time doing extra physical therapy.
The hard work paid off and he was able to return to Carlin earlier than planned. July 15th, less than a month from the accident, Chris was back at home. His mom, Tiffanie, attributed his quick healing to him starting in great physical condition and not wanting to miss out on any of his senior year. That and the fact so many people showed their support to the family.
Chris said, “My parents are who inspired me to get through this. They stayed with me the whole time. And I wanted to get back for my senior season of sports.”
Tiffanie was with Chris from the day he entered the burn center and Earl was able to be with him most of the time. His company, TIC Industrial, kept informed of the situation and did their best not to cause the family any additional hardship.
” The community support has been absolutely awesome,” said Tiffanie. ” So many people came to visit and took care of our home and things while we were away. I know all of the visitors helped Christopher want to get home as soon as he could.”
Since returning home, Chris has had to make a few adjustments to his previous routine. But his mom says he’s not one to sit around and mope.
Every Friday, he travels to Elko to do physical therapy. He dropped his AP classes at school and took another weight class to speed up his physical therapy work. That has paid off as he is nearing the time he doesn’t need to make the regular Friday, Elko trips.
Chris also took himself off of his pain medication. The doctors told the family that he would likely need drug intervention because his body would become reliant on the narcotics. Chris wasn’t going to allow that to control him. He only takes an ocassional ibuprofen for the swelling.
Though Chris’ vocal cords are still a little swollen and he has a small open wound on his elbow, he is ahead of recovery schedule. He has to wear a special garment, 23 hours a day, that he describes as “an extra skin, just a different color.”
“I’m pretty used to it now and don’t have to really wear it as much. My teammates have been great to help. Sometimes I can’t get it on all the way and I also need lotion put on the scars on my back and they’ve been willing to help me out with that.”
Chris was there, on the gridiron, the first day of practice. Something his doctors said was out of the question. He said he was only back to about 75% of the playing time he was used to, but it was great to be back.
“He’s a great kid. He’s okay that this happened to him and he knows he can’t make it better with words. He works very hard to be where he’s at today, ” added Tiffanie.
He’s making the best of a bad situation. During fire prevention week, Chris spoke to the kids and showed them his injuries, in hope to prevent any of them from going through what he has endured. Chris is still planning to attend college and is going to make a try for the basketball team.
“I can’t just sit around. I have to work to put it behind me and that’s what I’ve decided to do.”
Though Carlin didn’t get the chance to play for the state title in football after their loss last week, this is one season they will never forget. Thanks to the tenacity and inspiring efforts of Chris Hyatt.