Kellen Brandt

“Being down a finger, it’s not as handy as it used to be,” jokes Kellen Brandt, referring to his hand.

In July 2022, the then 35-year-old father and farmer suffered deep burns after being electrocuted while attempting to burn wood by using jumper cables on a microwave transformer. 

“The electric shock grabbed hold of me and wouldn’t let go,” Kellen recalls with some amusement. “My kids were playing in the yard and saw me laying on the ground in the garage next to my work bench and my daughter ran to get my wife who bravely found a way to get me off the machine.”

Living in Alma, Mo., getting to the nearest hospital that could treat severe electrical burns would have meant about an hour and a half drive for Kellen. Instead, Kellen was life flighted in 20 minutes to Research Medical Center where he went into the care of Dr. Megan Garcia, MD, Board-certified Surgeon and Burn specialist with the Grossman Burn Center.

“Electrical burns are serious. Often times the internal injuries are worse than the skin injuries and the fluid resuscitation they require is something a burn center should handle,” says Dr. Garcia.

Kellen spent nearly a month at Research Medical Center, where he described his care team as being the utmost professionals.

“The professionalism they had, explaining things to me at my level and not overly clinical, made me feel confident in them. In fact, it was the first time I didn’t mind being doctored on and I’m usually stubborn about having to see doctors.”

During his recovery, Kellen underwent skin grafting procedures; as a result of his injury, he burned off a finger and lost a toe.

“There was never a lack of information or understanding, and all the care team was incredible,” Kellen says. “They were so great that instead of celebrating my birthday in the hospital, Dr. Garcia made sure that I would leave by my birthday so that I would get to spend the day at home with my family. Sure enough, the day I discharged was the day I turned 36.”  

Since leaving the hospital, Kellen has gone through physical therapy and is working on getting his grip back. He admits, however, that the lasting side effects from his injury are far better than he could have imagined and he wouldn’t have wanted to go anywhere else for his care.

“I’ve told people, if anything were to ever happen to them, or they simply needed to get something checked, go to Research Medical Center. Burns are more common then we realize, and you’ll be in good hands with Dr. Garcia and the burn unit team.”