Originally published by FOX40
EUNICE, La. (KLFY) — One mother is experiencing true thankfulness this holiday season as she welcomes her son home from being hospitalized for 31 days.
Virginia Meyers says weeks ago her son was rushed to the hospital after he was severely burned in an explosion from a gas leak in his home. Meyers is and an ER nurse.
“I made it there before they did. It was horrible because he was burned from head to toe,” Meyers said.
When she received a call saying her son would be transported from Eunice to Our Lady of Lourdes’ burn facility, she knew her son was in bad shape.
Meyers says the past few weeks were rough. On top of taking care of her grandson and worried about her son, she constantly wondered when he would be able to return home.
Today, she received her answer.
“Hey, they discharging you now? All right, I will come pick you up,” she said after picking up the phone during an interview with News 10.
She says her son’s wish was to be home for his twenty-sixth birthday. A week later, Myers says his return home couldn’t have come at a better time.
“I said, ‘Well, Johnny, it doesn’t look like that, but maybe you’ll be home by Thanksgiving. That will give a whole other meaning to thanks,”’ she said.
Four surgeries and 31 days later, Johnathon Broussard is home and grateful to be alive, but Broussard says he didn’t always feel this way.
“There was a point where I just wanted to die because it was so bad when I got in there,” he said.
Now he has a different perspective. He says although he lost everything in the fire, his life is what matters most.
“I mean all that can be replaced,” Broussard said. “I’m not getting another life.”
Broussard had major second- and third-degree burns throughout his body, mainly his arms, legs and back.
He said although his scars can be covered and partially removed, he chooses not to: “I’ll wear these scars proudly. I survived and it’s a reminder of what I went through.”
