Help Sought For Burn Victim Donations Asked For 7-Year-Old From Chattaroy Hurt Last Month
FOR THE RECORD: 3-6-98 Address incorrect: A Thursday article gave the wrong address for donations to pay medical bills for 7-year-old burn victim Amanda Sturm. Contributions may be made to the Sturm Family Fund at Spokane Railway Credit Union, 301 N. Havana, Spokane 99202.
Friends and family of a Spokane County girl severely burned in a February accident are asking area residents for donations to help pay the family’s bills.
Thousands of dollars in medical costs continue to pile up as 7-year-old Amanda Sturm recovers from burns on her legs.
She has been hospitalized in Seattle since Feb. 2 after falling into a smoldering pile of brush near her family’s Chattaroy home.
In her velvet overalls and sparkle-covered tennis shoes, Amanda ran to help her 11-year-old brother, Timmy, dump fireplace ashes in the smoldering brush pile.
She just wanted to help, Amanda’s mother, Michelle Sturm, said. Timmy cautioned his sister about the fire, Sturm said.
As Amanda ran up, the ground gave way beneath her feet and her legs slipped into the fire.
“She climbed out and was screaming ‘Hot! hot! hot!”’ Sturm recalled.
The girl’s legs were burned from her feet to her knees.
“Her clothes didn’t burn,” Sturm said. “I didn’t realize it was that bad.”
Amanda was rushed to Sacred Heart Medical Center and immediately airlifted to Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center burn unit.
The first-grader at Shiloh Hills Elementary School remains in Seattle with her mother, awaiting her third reconstructive surgery.
The first month has been agony. Amanda has refused to eat and two skin grafts have helped little after infections raged in both legs.
“She’s one tough chick,” Sturm said. “I can’t believe what she has gone through.”
The family, now drained financially as well as emotionally, holds on to the hope that Amanda will be home soon.
“The next year is very important for her recovery,” Sturm said. “I’m planning on her playing soccer in September.”
, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: HOW TO HELP Contributions may be made to the Sturm Family Fund at Spokane Railway Credit Union, P.O. Box 811, Spokane 99207.