00:00 When I was two years old, me and my little brother,
00:02 we decided to go and pick up the gallon of gasoline.
00:05 It just fell down to the ground,
00:06 and the gasoline ignited the fire.
00:09 When I see him, he is screaming,
00:10 and he got his hands extended like he want reach me.
00:14 Everything happened right away.
00:16 70% of my body was burned.
00:18 I fell into a coma from the shock.
00:20 The doctors were already telling my parents to be ready
00:24 in case I were to pass away.
00:26 You can go to sleep, you know, and change your life.
00:30 So the skin on my face, I normally just wash it with water.
00:35 I don't do too much to it.
00:37 I'm probably supposed to be wearing sunscreen, but I don't.
00:39 And I just make sure it's nice and clean.
00:41 On the nose, I do massage it every now and then.
00:43 Since my last memory of me not being burnt doesn't exist,
00:48 this is my normal.
00:50 So I felt normal.
00:52 It never really hit me too much
00:55 how different I was from other people until later.
00:58 So growing up, a lot of other kids were very curious
01:02 as to how I got my scars.
01:03 But for the most part, after their curiosity was quenched,
01:07 they didn't really bring it up too much,
01:09 and we just became friends most of the time.
01:12 The thing that bothers me the most is the stairs,
01:14 'cause I do look completely different from everybody else.
01:17 So that is a little annoying.
01:19 - Everybody there?
01:21 - Hello, welcome in.
01:23 - How you doing?
01:24 (laughing)
01:26 - How are you?
01:28 - You okay?
01:29 - Yeah, I'm good.
01:29 I was two years old when the fire happened.
01:32 I was gonna help my dad cut the grass.
01:34 Me and my little brother, we decided to go into the garage
01:37 and pick up the gallon of gasoline,
01:39 which was on a top shelf.
01:40 It just fell down to the ground and it spilled.
01:43 Gasoline ran all the way towards the water heater,
01:47 and that ignited the fire.
01:48 My brother Daniel was in the fire too.
01:52 My mom immediately ran outside when she heard the screaming
01:55 and pulled him out, and my dad came out the shower
01:59 and pulled me out of the fire.
02:00 I do believe my dad saved my life.
02:02 - Everything happens right away, you know?
02:06 It's screaming.
02:07 When I see him, he got his hands extended
02:12 like he wanna reach me,
02:15 and I was grab him from his shoulders
02:21 and pull out the fire.
02:23 - You suffered some burns as well, right?
02:26 - Yeah, I get burned my hands a little bit,
02:29 but my wife, the same thing.
02:32 She burns her hands and her arm.
02:35 It's bad when that happens, you know?
02:38 It's not dying, it's faster.
02:40 I think my prognosis when I got into the hospital
02:42 was severe burns through around 60% of my body.
02:47 The doctors were worried about my recovery.
02:49 Some of them were already telling my parents to be ready
02:53 in case I were to pass away.
02:55 My dad was extremely stressed out about the situation.
02:59 He somewhat blames himself,
03:00 even though he didn't really do anything to cause it.
03:04 He said that he was fighting with the doctors
03:07 to do something, but they couldn't do anything.
03:09 - You can go to sleep, you know, and change your life.
03:13 My wife too, my wife, she changed her life.
03:15 You know, I was suffering a lot, I cries a lot,
03:18 but we don't cry in front of him.
03:20 Everything he needs, we give it to him.
03:23 - So I think the main two lasting symptoms
03:26 that I have from the accident
03:27 is that I lost sight on my right eye,
03:30 and the other one is that the scars don't grow.
03:33 I've basically been in and out of the hospital
03:37 throughout my entire childhood, teenage years.
03:39 I believe that on my face,
03:40 I've gone in around 15 to 20 surgeries,
03:43 and in total, on my whole body,
03:46 I've probably had over 150, 160 surgeries.
03:50 This is like five skin grafts,
03:51 just to make sure the arm can stay extended.
03:54 You know, I used to have a band right here,
03:56 contraction, but it's almost gone now.
03:59 They did a forehead flat
04:00 where they cut my forehead up into my scalp
04:03 and flipped the skin over to my nose
04:05 so that I could have a nice, healthy chunk of skin
04:07 on that area.
04:09 They also did on my hips
04:11 and the side of both my legs
04:13 on the contractions I have there.
04:15 So they've been doing a lot of work on you.
04:16 Yeah.
04:17 I know you and mom did not want me to continue surgeries.
04:20 So that's my question.
04:21 When you gonna stop doing this?
04:23 Never.
04:24 I was thinking you don't wanna be a sufferer anymore.
04:26 Well, I don't see surgeries as suffering
04:28 like other people do.
04:29 Since I was little,
04:31 every time I go to the hospital and get a new surgery,
04:34 I just see it as me improving my health a little bit more.
04:36 Whatever you decide,
04:38 I'm gonna be with you.
04:41 Your decision is correct.
04:43 Are you happy?
04:45 It doesn't matter anything.
04:47 I do wish that I didn't have a visible difference
04:50 mainly because it does cause health issues.
04:52 And obviously I'd rather,
04:54 instead of being in the hospital all the time,
04:56 be doing a few other things.
04:57 The scars themselves, the way they look,
05:00 it's fine to me.
05:01 Kind of like the Frankenstein look that I have on my arm.
05:03 So I plan on getting a few more skin grafts, add to that.
05:06 It's now a different day.
05:09 And now that I'm healed up,
05:11 we can proceed with the actual contents of the video.
05:15 I started creating TikTok content in spring of 2021.
05:20 I've had so many surgeries in my last 22 years
05:25 that the hand that has been used for all the IVs
05:29 is now scarred and it can't be used for IVs anymore.
05:33 That's me directing myself from the idea I had.
05:36 I think it's just a creative outlet for me
05:38 to educate people on different aspects
05:41 of being a burn survivor.
05:43 And then, you know, to make people laugh as well.
05:45 'Cause that's the vast majority of my videos.
05:47 We just reached 100,000 followers.
05:51 Thank you, all you filthy degenerates.
05:53 Three positive characteristics that can help you
05:56 overcome any challenges that you may face.
05:58 Whether it's a house fire, a depression,
06:00 or stomping yourself at the corner of your bed.
06:02 The response from the viewers of my TikTok
06:06 has been always showing support.
06:08 Every now and then there's a troll,
06:09 but that's like normal for anything online.
06:12 So it doesn't bother me.
06:13 I do notice that normally the other supporters
06:16 that I have on social media end up going after those people.
06:18 So I don't have to do anything.
06:20 I don't even remove them
06:21 'cause then that means I'm paying attention.
06:23 The positive responses always make me feel
06:25 a bit more normal in this world where I'm not normal.
06:29 It's always really nice to read.
06:31 (upbeat music)
06:33 - Hey Sergio.
06:36 - How's it going, man?
06:37 - What's up?
06:37 - Hey, man.
06:38 - How's it going?
06:39 - It's going good.
06:40 - Nice, good to see you, dude.
06:41 - I actually met Sergio at the movies
06:44 because they work together.
06:46 But Sergio told me right away, he told me his story
06:50 and we instantly kind of connected and bonded
06:52 and felt like each other were just safe and cool people.
06:55 - We met virtually first and when we met in person,
06:58 it was just like, we had been old friends for a while.
07:01 - When he told me he had a TikTok,
07:02 I thought that was super cool.
07:03 He doesn't let, you know,
07:05 any visual scarring or anything impair his life.
07:08 - Yeah, the way Sergio deals with his condition
07:11 is so optimistic and it just like inspires me
07:15 to like do better in my own life.
07:17 I mean, he's just like a glass half full kind of guy.
07:21 So I love that about him.
07:23 - I hope people take away from my story,
07:26 the motivation and the power to be able to move on
07:29 and do greater things.
07:31 Never let any little thing stop you.
07:34 Never let any little or big thing hold you down.
07:37 You have your whole life ahead of you
07:39 and you could always accomplish so much,
07:41 even with there being some downsides along the way.
07:44 - I'm proud of him.
07:45 He's very good.
07:46 I can't have another son like him.
07:48 (upbeat music)
07:51 (upbeat music)
07:53 (upbeat music)
07:56 (upbeat music)
07:59 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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