Larry SticklerLarry Stickler of Glenview, Kentucky, is a man who likes to stay on the move. He is currently retired, but spent much of his career as a real estate broker. Later in life he served as the president of a startup called Evacugear, which was eventually dissolved. Stickler stays busy to this day though, and stays involved in the management of his four investment properties located in Michigan, Florida and Louisville. 

In the mid-morning to early afternoon hours of Oct. 6, 2023, Stickler’s life took an unexpected turn. Stickler was working on a boat in Powell Boatyard in Prospect, Kentucky, that he had been maintaining in anticipation of finally getting it back on the water. “I would be there by 8 in the morning and work until 5 at night. That day, I noticed we had water in the bilge. Unfortunately, through previous accidents and concussions, I had lost my sense of smell. One of the things I couldn’t smell, on that day, was gasoline. I guess there was a leak or something, so I was trying to vacuum it out and couldn’t smell it. The shop vac I was using blew up and immediately caught fire, which ignited the bilge, which then ran down and ignited the gas tanks. They blew immediately. It was something like out of T.V. It was loud, blew me all the way over to the other side of the yacht. I remember thinking, ‘Oh sh*t, I gotta get out of here. Then I looked over and I saw Daisy [Larry’s great dane], who was a little puppy on the other side of the fire looking right at me, and without thinking I ran through that fire, got her, and ran right back out, going down the ladder the wrong way. How I didn’t trip is beyond me. I remember letting her go, and I think I saw a man running towards me; the explosion was loud enough I guess someone heard it and came running. I have no memory after that.”

Larry was in a coma from October 2023 until January 2024. He doesn’t have much recollection of that time, other than waking up and seeing his wife, Ann. “This explosion has definitely affected my short-term memory, so I don’t have a lot of memory of that time. I can’t tell you when I woke up, how I woke up, who I saw.”

In total, 45% of Stickler’s body suffered a third-degree burn, and a broken pinky. Ann added some additional details to the story. “He started out intubated, and after a few weeks they had to put in a trach. It was scary, he was on fentanyl and all the other stuff they give you for the pain for two months, but then they started cutting him off; they wanted to wean him off the medicine slowly to give him a chance to wake up. But by the end of November, it had been two weeks at that point, and they were still giving him medicine for the pain during dressing changes and all that, but they had to cut the heavy stuff that knocked him out. He just wasn’t waking up, and they told me it might take a while for the drugs to expel from his system. Then they started doing brain scans and MRIs to make sure he didn’t have any brain damage. It was scary because we didn’t know if his brain was affected. The turning point was when he was good enough to have skin graft surgery on Thanksgiving Day 2023. It was a blessing because Dr. Nash said he would do it before the end of his rotation. Right after that in December, he finally started waking up, but it was gradual. I was getting all these signs with letters and stuff because I knew it would be hard for him to talk, but he could slowly start to communicate a little more bit by bit.” 

Ann notes that Larry woke up in December, before eventually being discharged to Frazier Rehabilitation Institute on Dec. 23, 2023.

Stickler said he can remember more after his time at Frazier Rehab Institute. “I had to be able to walk around at the Burn Center before they would discharge me, and even walking was a challenge,” he said. “I remember thinking ‘holy sh*t, I did it.’ I didn’t want to stop from there, I wanted to keep going and push more. That’s just who I am, I like to push. I knew what had happened because of the explosion, and once I was conscious, I wanted to get my ass better so I could get out of there.”

Ann added that she knew that once he woke up he would be on a good path. “I knew he would feel motivated to get up and get moving as quickly as he could, and would want to walk not just one lap, but five laps.”

Stickler notes that he attributes much of his recovery to his mindset, despite the initial challenges one feels after a life-altering accident. “There were times that I wished I was dead. I know Ann doesn’t want to hear that, but there were times I just didn’t know why I was still living. That entered my mind a fair amount of times. It doesn’t now, I’m grateful to be alive, and excited for my next chapter in life, excited for retirement with Ann. But there was a time that I wasn’t in a good place. I was in pain, but pain never really kept me from doing the things I like to do. It was a huge blow to my whole being, going from being a very active person to not so suddenly.” 

While at the Frazier Rehab Institute, he took part in physical, occupational and some speech therapy.

Though Larry has progressed considerably since his incident, he and Ann both note that the story is still ongoing. “One thing you learn with a burn trauma is that it goes on for a long time,” Ann shared. “There’s still new phases and milestones. He still gets treatment for his breathing, he still gets procedures done regularly for his arms and the skin grafts.” 

Looking at the road ahead, the couple has big plans. “We’re going to focus on getting our son to graduate and get into a college that he wants to get into, and then hopefully spending some time at our investment properties in Florida and Michigan, Stickler said. “We’ll need to downsize, and get ready for our final smaller house. I’m also a part of WAGS, which stands for Wonderful Animals Giving Support. They are a dog therapy group that goes to all sorts of places, schools, hospitals, airports, and they offer their dogs as therapy dogs. We’re training Daisy to be a therapy dog. One of the things I want to be able to do is pay everything forward and give back to the Burn Team at UofL Health.”  

“I just want to thank all of the medical staff, both nurses and doctors, for all of their care.” Stickler said. “I wouldn’t be here today without them, and they were absolutely amazing. It takes a special person to be a burn nurse, and that whole team is full of truly special people. I also want to thank my beautiful wife for all the care and love that she’s given me.” 

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