After spending about two months in Crosier Hospital and with burns still covering his upper body from a December accident, doctors finally allowed Matthew “Tucker” Smawley to leave the burn center with his mother for a trip to the mall.
While walking through the mall at a slow pace to lengthen the feeling of normality, the 15-year-old likely lost that feeling when a kid, about his age, approached. The stranger walked up — thinking what most people were probably thinking in the mall that day — and asked Tucker “What happened to you?”
Without hesitation, Tucker’s grandmother said, the burn-laden high school freshman (on hiatus) turned and said, “I caught myself on fire and I’m happy to be alive.”
More than three months after the Dec. 3 accident that left third-degree burns on Tucker’s hands, arms, chest, neck and face, the Indian River freshman is still in treatments.
While he is by all accounts still lucky to be alive, the medical bills at Crosier burn center and A.I. Dupont Hospital continue to mount. Tucker’s grandmother Sue Crowley said that the Crosier bill alone has eclipsed $2 million.
Trying to help, longtime family friend and owner of Fenwick Island’s Lighthouse Landing Jeanne Hastings has started a fundraiser raffle. Tickets cost $5 or $20 for four, and all of the proceeds will benefit Tucker’s family.
Anyone can buy the tickets at the Lighthouse Landing, the Oceanside Sub shop in Fenwick, McCabe’s Gourmet in South Bethany, the Coastal Point in Ocean View or the Southern Delaware School for the Arts in Selbyville. Or they can call (302) 539-2211 for more information.
The first-place winner of the raffle will receive a Vera Bradley luggage set, including a garment bag, and large and small duffle bags in the Java Blue pattern. The second-place winner will receive a Vera Bradley limited-edition accessory set, which includes a watch, a scarf, a belt and an umbrella.
The third-place winner will get to choose a Vera Bradley handbag from Hastings’ store. Hastings donated all of the prizes except for the garment bag, which was donated by a Vera Bradley sales representative.
“I’ve known Tucker since he was a baby,” Hastings said. “He’s got a long road ahead of him. We just wanted to help out.”
“It’s a wonderful thing for her to do,” Clower said of the fundraiser. “We just appreciate everything.”
Clower said that the fundraiser is just an extension of the overwhelming community support the family has received since the Dec. 3 accident.
On that rare cold and snowy night this winter, Tucker and a few friends had warmed up by a barrel fire. As the fire slowly started to weaken, Tucker grabbed the last of the gasoline, tipped the can and tossed the gas on the fire. He then experienced what was likely the most horrific event of his young life.
The fire traced the line of gasoline toward and onto Tucker’s body, searing him and leaving third-degree burns on most of his upper body. In an unforgettable sequence of events for Tucker’s friends and family, a friend called an ambulance, which took him to Beebe Medical Center in Lewes. Because of that night’s snow, however, the helicopter couldn’t fly to the burn center, so Tucker had to wait until the next morning.
Starting Dec. 4, Tucker spent about two months at Crosier, where he received 10 skin-graft surgeries. Tucker still returns to Crosier two times per month but he is now being treated as an outpatient at A.I. DuPont Hospital.
“He is progressing nicely,” Clower said, “But it’s going to be a long healing process.”
Tucker’s grandmother said he will eventually return to school and to the soccer field, where he scored his first goal this fall as a member of the junior varsity soccer team.
For the meantime, though, he will continue to heal with the newfound perspective he displayed at the mall that day to help him keep progressing.
“It was awful,” Clower said of the experience. “He is lucky to be alive. But his outlook is very positive.”