Minneapolis firefighters mark 15 years of visiting burn survivors during holiday season
Fifteen years ago, former Minneapolis firefighter Jake LaFerriere turned one of his darkest days into a tradition that now brings holiday cheer to some of Minnesota's most vulnerable patients.
"Getting a second opportunity to live really makes you rethink everything you are doing," said LaFerriere.
In 2010, he suffered severe burns in a backdraft explosion while responding to a fire.
LaFerriere spent months recovering at the Hennepin Healthcare Burn Center.
"Being in the burn unit for a long time, there weren't a lot of people outside my mom who visited, and you get really lonely," said LaFerrriere. "It propped my priorities to the forefront and what was important to me."
He turned the feeling of isolation into the Minneapolis nonprofit Firefighter for Hope, and organized a small Christmas blessing as a way to thank caregivers and burn patients.
On Friday morning, firefighters gathered in Minneapolis to load trucks with gifts designated for patients at the Burn Center, where hospital staff waited to help transport the presents inside.
Gifts were delivered room to room as patients looked on.
For one physician at the Burn Center, the day carried a special meaning.
"I can remember 1994, when I was a patient in this hospital," said Dr. Jon Gayken with the burn center. "When I was here, there was no community support."
Long before becoming a doctor, he was a patient in the same unit. Gayken says seeing the partnership between firefighters, Firefighters for Healing and the hospital has shown him that patients don't have to feel alone.
"The partnership that we've had now over the years has shown us and our patients that they are not by themselves. There are people out there that are going to help them," said Gayken. "It goes far beyond the gifts."
LaFerriere's experience over the years comes in many words.
"For them showing up, the community showing up and us filling up the hallways of the hospital, the burn unit with hope, comfort, warmth, beauty, love, it's beyond words," said LeFerriere.
The Burn Center treats patients of all ages and is staffed by specially trained burn care nurses and physicians.