Atlan Stegall will always remember the day it happened.
He was 6 years old and riding a dirt bike with his dad on rural land. As he prepared to take on a hill, the bike’s tire hit a pothole. Atlan lost control, crash-landed and became pinned between the bike and a barbed wire fence. The hot engine was pressed against his exposed calf, causing second- and third-degree burns, even searing some of the letters from the bike’s Yamaha logo into his flesh.
“It was terrible,” recalls his mother, Rebecca Mancuso.
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The harrowing episode brought Atlan to the Baton Rouge General Regional Burn Center, where he ultimately underwent a skin graft using healthy tissue from the other side of his calf. He’s since healed and has given a lot of thought to the experience of having a burn scar. It’s something he openly discusses with other kids at the Baton Rouge General’s Camp Catahoula, a summer camp for pediatric burn victims.
The annual gathering, free of charge to families, celebrates the journey behind each camper’s scar while equipping them with the tools to continue healing.
More than 300 children are treated in emergency rooms for burns in the United States every day, with two dying from their injuries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Pediatric burns can cause significant trauma, and they can require extensive treatment, including reconstructive surgery. Physical pain usually resolves, but the emotional and social sides of the experience can take longer.
That’s where the camp comes in, says coordinator Brittany Laird, a Baton Rouge General occupational therapist. The privately funded, week-long gathering hosts about 40 regional kids ages 7 to 17 at a retreat center in Lawrence, Mississippi. Campers participate in obstacle courses, swimming, horseback riding and other old-fashioned fun, but they also have a chance to openly discuss what it’s like to carry scars, Laird says.
“It’s a way for them to be able to feel safe in an environment where they can talk about what happened and see kids who have experienced similar things,” she says.
It’s also a good time, says Atlan, now 13 and a rising eighth grader at Juban Parc Junior High School.
“It’s really fun,” he says. “I’ve been going for a while now and have a lot of really good friends. Overall, it’s just been a really cool experience.”
Woven into the fun are burn safety tips. Professionals from the Baton Rouge Fire Department, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and statewide motorcycle clubs share guidelines for avoiding common burns, most of which occur in households. Even interactive cooking sessions help campers learn stove safety while gaining culinary arts skills.
Atlan has embraced talking about his scar, and says he carries no future fear of dirt bikes, provided he wears long pants. He says he’s learned how to educate others about how to act around burn victims, too.
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“It’s important not to judge people about their burn, even if it looks bad,” he says. “It’s just an accident that happened.” brgeneral.org
This article was originally published in the July 2024 issue of 225 Magazine.