Burn victim from Eugene to spend months in Portland burn unit

OREGON — Early last month a Eugene woman was in an accidental fire pit explosion outside of her apartment.

Kayla Williams was flown to a Portland hospital after her body was covered in 75 percent burns.

Today, she's still in the hospital and will remain there for many months.

Heide Kost went to this beauty school with Williams.

After the accidental fire pit explosion that has left Kayla unrecognizable, Heide feels compelled to help.

“It impacted me instantly because she has such little, little ones at home,” said Heide. “And such a young daughter. Just from the mom aspect of it, my heart really goes out to her.”

Not only did Heide start a Go Fund Me page for Kayla, but she made arrangements to hold a fundraiser where they went to beauty school together. The proceeds of the event will go to help Kayla and her family during this difficult time.

“The best way I thought to do that was, to get all of her friends involved here in doing this fundraiser for Kayla,” said Heide. “Because it's something we can all do. Something we can put all of our practices together here at school, for the community.”

In the meantime, we reached out to Dr. Katie Beam of the Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland.

We asked her why is there only one burn center in the state of Oregon, as it's not here in Eugene, it's in Portland. She says more than one burn center actually won't do much good.

“A verified burn center requires a tremendous amount of structure and very specialized people. And that requires a lot of resources,” said Dr. Beam.

Resources of which the doctor says are hard to find. She says burn surgeons are even hard to find, as there are only three currently in Portland.

But, she says burn victims are cared for immensely physically and mentally, even after they finally leave the hospital.

If you'd like to donate to kayla's Go Fund Me, you can find the info here.

The fundraiser will take place at the Northwest School of Beauty in Springfield on February third from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.. A wide range of beauty services will be provided, and the proceeds will go to Kayla and her family.