On a hot summer day in 2016, then 10-year-old Alyssa was preparing to celebrate the Fourth of July. Alyssa loved to bake and being experienced in the kitchen; she decided to make treats for a family gathering on her own. After boiling water and sugar to make simple syrup, she went to put the mixture in the fridge — and that’s when her life changed in the blink of an eye. The pot tilted and its boiling contents splashed onto her hand. She flinched and the pot tipped further, sending the scalding liquid down her lower back, hip, thigh, and knee. “I remember falling to the ground, screaming and crying in pain,” says Alyssa.
Alyssa’s family quickly called 911, and paramedics arrived in a matter of minutes. Alyssa was transported to University Medical Center (UMC) in Las Vegas, where she endured several hours of burn treatment. After being prescribed codeine to help with the pain, she went into anaphylactic shock and was rushed back to the hospital where she would spend another six hours.
At home again, Alyssa went through painful dressing changes, which quickly became too much to handle, leading her back to UMC for five days. While there she experienced another anaphylactic shock due to morphine, prompting her doctor to rule out other pain medications. “I had to go through the worst of my burns without pain medication,” says Alyssa. During this hospital stay, Alyssa was introduced to a burn advocate named Kimberly, who provided Alyssa with crucial emotional support and shared the mission of the Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation (AARBF), a resource dedicated to supporting burn survivors.
Each year, hundreds of burn survivors attend camps hosted by AARBF where they can have fun and just be kids. Alyssa was 11 years old when she attended her first camp. “I was reading the list of things you can do, like riding go-karts and dirt bikes, and doing arts and crafts,” says Alyssa. “I was stoked!”





Alyssa stressed that while the burns are the reason she and her peers attend camp, they have so much more than that in common. “Having someone that you can connect to does wonders for your emotional growth and development. In my deepest, darkest moments camp, the friends, and the relationships I made, were what got me through the year,” she says. Fast forward nearly a decade, Alyssa is now a Counselor in Training, eager to use her experience to help other kids.
For the past eight years, Alyssa has counted on AFW’s volunteer pilots to make each journey to and from camp possible. “If it wasn’t for Angel Flight West, I would not be able to go to camp and make the connections I’ve made,” says Alyssa. “I know that I can speak for all the kids in Nevada that we are so thankful and so grateful to be able to participate and learn new things,” says Alyssa. “I would not be the person I am today if it wasn’t for Angel Flight West.”
Each year, AFW flies hundreds of missions for burn survivors and children with life-threatening illnesses to attend specialty camps and programs. Make a gift today to support camp season flights at angelflightwest.org/camp.