Susquehanna teen survives horrific electrical shock

BY JOBY FAWCETT

Times-Shamrock Writer

It was a sweltering June afternoon and David Vales went to work.

Diligent and dedicated, no job, he said, would ever be too tough, and he would be undeterred by the heat.

Just as he did each day during the early part of last summer, David was ready to put in the long hours painting a barn at Camp Wayne in Preston Park, Wayne County.

He went about his usual routine preparing for work. But soon there would be nothing usual about this day. This day would change his life forever.

As he stood in a boom lift that hoisted him up along a wall, an electric arc generated from a nearby wire sent a bolt into the back of his head, through his body, before exiting through his back.

Unconscious and burned, his muscles singed, the soon-to-be high school senior at Susquehanna Community High School began the fight for his life.

Remarkably, 10 months later, he is back with the Sabers volleyball team. His jumps aren’t quite as high, his kills not as strong, but his courage is as powerful as it has ever been, serving as an inspiration to a program and a community.

“He’s got a really good attitude,” his mother Robin Burdick said. “He’s a fighter and that is what has gotten him to where he is now. He’s not 100 percent. He’s still a little weak. As he gets better I want more and more for him.

“I am just so happy that he is alive.”

A true competitor

David really likes sports.

Can’t stop talking about them.

He really enjoyed taking long runs through the woods. He joined the cross country team in his junior year and was the team’s strongest runner.

But he loves volleyball.

And he is good at it.

A solid player along the back line and a powerful hitter at the net, Vales, 19, was one of the leaders of the Susquehanna squad. There were plenty of days where he would put in extra practice while playing in the leagues at Green Gables.

His work ethic also drove him when working his summer job at Camp Wayne, and it made him very popular.

That’s what made the screams for help so chilling.

Lindsey Burdick, Vales’ sister who also worked at the camp, called for help. Seeing her brother motionless and fading in and out of consciousness, his body burning from the inside out, left a devastating mark on her that she would rather not relive, according to her mother.

Quickly, Vales was life-flighted to the Burn Center at Lehigh Valley Hospital.

Upon arrival, his condition had worsened. The heat of the current, estimated at 36,000 volts, he said, began to take its toll. His face turned as black as coal, his skin began to peel away just as a flame recedes a sheet of paper.

Covered in bandages, his body swollen from fluid, to her horror, his mother barely recognized her child.

“He was thrashing about,” she recalled. “I just told him to try to be a good patient. We didn’t know if he was going to make it. His cardiac enzymes kept elevating. He was on a ventilator.

“He really was beyond recognition.”

A long road back

Vales was unconscious for much of his early stay at the hospital.

He still doesn’t remember much after the initial shock, but the lasting pain and agony reminds him daily of his devastating ordeal. There have been many surgeries to graft skin. And an ongoing, strenuous recovery began that drains him both physically and mentally.

“I just wanted to go home so bad,” Vales said about his hospital stay. “There were a lot of times I couldn’t handle it. I cried every night. I didn’t want to be there. The surgeries were excruciatingly painful.

“It broke my whole family’s heart.”

There were lotions and Benadryl that calmed the inflammation and itching. Pain medications that soothed his ailing muscles. And rest.

When he finally returned to his home in Thompson, Susquehanna County in late July, he needed a walker as he tried to move his scorched and atrophied muscles.

It has all taken its toll.

“It was really emotional and I was depressed a lot,” he said, choking up with every memory. “I had a really hard time getting back to school. There were nurses coming every day to bandage me.

“It was tough.”

Getting back to the classroom for his senior year became a daunting challenge. But there he was taking his classes, readying himself for college, which he is determined to attend in the fall.

Drawing from that desire to compete, he stayed ahead of schedule in his rehabilitation through the fall and winter months, but lost his final year of competition in cross country.

So, then he set his sights on a return to the volleyball court this spring.

Mission: possible

Days, weeks and months of physical therapy, more skin grafts and some emotional soul searching, got Vales to the gym, against all odds, for the opening day of spring sports practice.

It wouldn’t be an easy day.

His skills have been diminished, but his passion has not.

“It was such a relief getting back,” Vales said. “It has been a lot of hard work. I get tired very quickly, and I get frustrated. But it’s definitely not as emotional. I am not as upset as I was.

“Right now, I feel a lot better than I was. I’m just glad that I can run a little bit. This is my fourth year on volleyball, and I actually get to play with my team.

“I may never be 100 percent, but I keep trying.”

He is getting that leaping ability back, slowly.

He is smashing kills again.

And, while the road all the way back remains a long and difficult one, he is happy.

“I am lucky to be alive,” he said with a slight chuckle of appreciation.

“There definitely was an angel with me.”