Cottonwood man: ‘I shouldn’t have lived’

COTTONWOOD — To see him now, alive and active, one might never realize that a little more than three months ago 32-year-old Eli Rad barely survived a catastrophic burn over more than three-quarters of his body.

Rad and his wife, Jenny, 25, believe that his astonishing recovery — though gradual — is due to the superior care he received at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center, the constant support of friends and family, and lots of prayer and miracles.

“I survived so many miracles it’s not even funny,” Eli said.

The ordeal began Feb. 17 on one of the first springlike days of the year. The Rads, of Cottonwood, and their two children, Everly, 4, and Samuel, 1, decided to spend the day at a family camping spot on the Salmon River about 20 miles from their home.

Eli unloaded the four-wheelers from his pickup truck, built a campfire, using a mix of gasoline and oil he carried in a jug as an accelerant, and then strolled a short distance to visit with some cowboys he knew.

“When I came back the fire was petering out, so I relit it” by adding more fuel, Eli said. “I set the jug 3 or 4 feet from the fire and I was going to grab some more wood.”

Jenny saw an ember flying from the fire to the mouth of the fuel jug “and she yelled at me that the jug was on fire. And I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ and then I seen it,” Eli said.

“I don’t know, it was really lucky because I went to grab the jug and try to put it out,” he said. “And when I grabbed it I was bent completely over it and it exploded.

“It exploded so hard I couldn’t hear anything and my entire body was engulfed in flames,” he said.

Eli’s body took the full force of the blast, but if he had not been in the way, he said, Jenny and the children would have caught fire, too. Eli said the chair they were sitting in was incinerated in seconds.

Eli plunged to the ground and began rolling, trying to extinguish the flames. But because the fuel contained gasoline, it kept relighting. The fire burned off all of his clothes except for a belt buckle and part of the soles of his boots.

“I remember sitting there unlacing my boots and just watching my fingers melt,” Eli said. “I shouldn’t have lived. Every doctor said even with the amount of adrenaline I had, I shouldn’t have been able to do the things that I did. My airway should have been collapsed.

“It’s just the good Lord. Everything that happened in the hospital was unnatural.”

Jenny, meanwhile, had been attending to her screaming children. Everly’s boot and pants had caught fire, so she quickly extinguished those flames.

“So I didn’t even know (Eli) was on fire,” Jenny said. “And I turned around and we saw him and it was like a World War II movie where you see people like fireballs. That was him. His skin was like big bubbles and they were moving. It was horrible.”

When Eli finally stopped burning he loaded the dog, the four-wheelers and his family into the pickup truck and headed to St. Mary’s Health, in Cottonwood, calling ahead to let them know he would be arriving in minutes.

“Extreme pain,” he said. “I walked into the hospital buck naked with skin just hanging off me. The nurses were shocked. They didn’t think I was going to live.”

Eli was placed into an induced coma and sent by air ambulance to Harborview, in Seattle.

There he remained in a coma for about three weeks while medical staff did everything they could to remove the dead and dying skin and stop infection. Three fingers on Eli’s left hand had been severely burned and doctors thought they would have to amputate. But at the last minute the fingers seemed to recover and no amputation was necessary.

For the next two and a half months, Eli went through the grueling ordeal of being treated for second- and third-degree burns. Jenny and the children stayed in a nearby airbnb and family members attended the family around the clock.

Back home, Eli’s friends arranged rosaries and prayer services and held a fundraiser that netted about $75,000. Other friends established a GoFundMe page that will go toward the extended laser treatment he will need to heal scars and other wounds.

Since returning home, the family has been unwinding and dealing with the delayed trauma of the event. Eli has had trouble sleeping, and so have the children. Although his pain has subsided somewhat, he still suffers the effects of extensive skin grafts and has lost feeling in parts of his body.

But he recently returned to work for his family’s mulching and fire reduction business.

Although he projects an upbeat spirit and is buoyed by the avalanche of love and support he’s received from family and friends, Eli said he’s been “humbled” by the experience and both he and Jenny look at life differently now.

“I believe if it wasn’t for my family I would have just let myself die,” he said, growing emotional over the memory. “It took everything in me to stay alive. But I thank God for giving me the strength. I just have thanks for everybody. Life can disappear pretty fast.”

Jenny said she’s grateful for the little things.

“Eli struggled to breathe the first few days and I thought: We should be thankful for every breath,” she said. “We should be thankful for our friends — all the little things that are really big things but we don’t appreciate them.…”

Then she and Eli said in unison: “Until it’s too late.”

The GoFundMe page may be reached at: gofundme.com/f/eli-rad-recovery

Hedberg may be contacted at khedberg@lmtribune.com.