Betty-Lou Summer was wearing a large hat and reclined in a metal chair next to the community pool at Johnson Ranch, in San Tan Valley, Arizona. It was June 11. In less than an hour, the sun was done with her.
When other visitors came over to check on her, Summer was unconscious. Her core body temperature exceeded 40 °C. The later diagnosis was devastating. Third-degree burns over most of the front of her body, with tissue destruction reaching the muscle and bone in several areas. In addition, kidney and liver damage. “The entire front of her body, down to basically the muscle and bone, is burned”, her daughter Michelle Gabbert, an internal medicine physician, told Arizona’s Family. “And it is extensive”.
Summer was transferred to a burn unit where she underwent several hours of surgical debridement and had three wound vacuum devices placed. Surgeons removed skin and necrotic tissue in multiple areas. Although she has been taken off the ventilator and no longer requires dialysis, she remains in the burn ICU with severe pain and a high risk of infection, awaiting further procedures. Her daughter, who opened a verified GoFundMe to cover medical expenses, summed it up this way: “Burns are one of the worst things someone can survive”.
