Laurence Busse was 19 when the car he was riding in caught fire during a night out in New Orleans in 1990. He escaped through the sunroof and was the only survivor. The burns covered 85 % of his body, and his chances of survival were around 3 %.
He spent three months in the hospital and underwent hundreds of operations. A year later, he returned to Tulane to finish his degree: “I knew that if I didn’t go back within a year, I’d never return”, he said.
He later studied medicine and specialized in critical care, the field he had come to know as a patient. His journey led him to become medical director of critical care at Emory Johns Creek Hospital and director of Emory’s Intensive Care Center. The patient who had once depended on a medical team ended up becoming part of one.
