A woman has told how she was brutally called ‘a zombie’ after she suffered angry burns to her face when she first fell into a campfire.
Elementary school teacher Halie Tennant, 29, said she felt she had “lost her identity” and reminded her how she asked her husband to “love” her.
And she said the coronavirus pandemic increased her ordeal because she only allowed one visitor one hour each day during a long recovery process after surgery.
Halie, from Hotspur in Victoria, Australia, had gone on a spontaneous camping trip with a friend, but it turned into a nightmare when she dived into a camping chair, according to Yahoo.
Her friend, who had fallen asleep in her swag, a portable bedroom, was awakened by a murmuring sound, and to her horror, Halie found her head first lying in the campfire, without trying to move.
She pulled Halie out of the fire – almost likely to save her life – and poured ice-cold water on her face to reduce the burns.
Halie has no idea how she got caught in the fire, but is of the opinion that the chair must have tipped while she slept in it.
The couple then drove back to Halie’s house less than two miles away, where her husband Matthew tried to cool her burns as much as possible by running cold water over her face while an ambulance, an ambulance for intensive care and a helicopter made their way made the scene.
Halie was taken to the intensive care unit at Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, where she was immediately placed in a coma.
After sitting in a coma for eight days, Halie was moved to the burns ward to begin her long recovery.
She has spent more than two-and-a-half months in hospital and has gone under the knife six times – including to remove damaged skin and have skin wrinkles on her face, neck, eyelids and mouth.
Unfortunately, Halie says she no longer remembers her pain after falling into the fire – although she remembers the pain of her husband’s reaction.
“I do not remember any pain,” she said, “I do remember asking Mathew to love me, no matter what, and he said, ‘yes.’
She said Matthew, her mother and father took turns to visit while she was in intensive care, describing the limited visiting hours due to Covid as “the hardest part” of her recovery.
After she was released from the hospital, she had to be readmitted about 10 days later because her eyelids were not touched – and then surgeons had to operate on her because her mouth could not open enough for her to to eat a fork or spoon.
But she said worse than any of that was the feeling of not knowing who she was anymore – something cruelly agitated by a foul taunt of a complete stranger.
“The hardest part was losing my identity,” Halie said. “I’m not a vain person, but your face and their characteristics are important for how you recognize yourself. Not knowing who you are anymore is a difficult thing to tackle.
“The only remark I personally received outside the hospital was a man walking by and he told me ‘you look like a zombie’ and kept running.”
Halie thanks her husband Matthew, her friends, and her parents for their support during a life-changing ordeal.
She said she is now unable to work or drive, but said bravely that the episode had given her “a better perspective on life” and was determined to think positively.
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