Cassandra Taylor

 

On July 12, 1998, my life and that of my 3 small children went from normal to anything but after I survived a crash landing in a small Cessna.  I was burned over 73% of my body all third degree burns with 3 limb fasciotomies.  According to the burn experts at Brooke Army Medical Center where I was airlifted, I was not expected to live or if I did make it, it would be a very long road to recovery with the possibilities of me not walking again.  Luckily for me, I never was told that information and that allowed my being to fight the fight of my life in order to return to raising my children.  You see a burn injury is one of the worst that a person can sustain and all of the recovery; it is literally a lifelong process.

Shortly after my arrival in the burn unit, I met a volunteer, Celia Jones, whom I quickly took a liking to and she became my connection to my future.  She came faithfully several times a week to check on me, keep me company since my children and family were all out of town and needed to continue working and school.  Celia was my rock, she was with me when I saw myself for the first time, when I sat up in therapy for the first time and walked for the first time.  She was there to make me feel like I could do anything I wanted to including be a productive member of society again.  Through her walk as a burn survivor and wanting to give back to burn survivors and their families during their time of crisis, she founded The Moonlight Fund with Henry Coffeen, a fellow burn patient at BAMC.

Through her work with Moonlight Fund, she is able to comfort and provide support for burn survivors and their families when other organizations have trouble doing those little things that often matter most.  During my continued recovery the Moonlight Fund helped me financially seek out other medical procedures that helped me get more function back that wasn’t available in my local area.  They have also been instrumental in providing retreats that help patients and family members deal with more psyche-social issues in a relaxed setting.

I am proud to sit on the board of a foundation that is so involved in the personal quest of a patient’s recovery.  They are dedicated to helping: from support at the onset of injury to getting someone back on track past the initial recovery time.