'I'd never heard of fifth-degree burns'
Donovan Williams, 34, lived five minutes from the Station and had been there several times. Last Feb. 20, he arrived 10 minutes before Great White went on stage. After the fire started, he almost made it to the exit but collapsed in the pile of bodies stacked up in the jammed doorway. "I remember thinking I couldn't believe this is how I'm going to die. I said goodbye to my wife and kids, and blacked out."
But his arm was sticking out of the pile, and someone rescued him. He was airlifted to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was kept in a medically induced coma for two months, with fifth-degree burns over 65 percent of his body, infections, and kidney failure. ("I'd never heard of fifth-degree burns," he says). That first week, doctors gave him a 30 percent chance to live.
"My butt was completely burned flat," says Williams, who has three children. He has burns from his head to his ankles. A large bald circle, fringed by dark hair, covers much of his head. "It's my Station haircut," he says, wryly. Nerve damage has left his fingers and toes in a clawed position.
For a long time, he was completely blind. Now he has 25 percent vision in one eye; doctors say it will improve no more. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Williams was a graphic artist. Today he can't see the computer screen, nor can his fingers negotiate a keyboard. "I get discouraged because I can't do what I did," he says, "but I don't let it hold me back."
Shortly before the fire, he and his wife had separated; in June, while he was at Spaulding Rehabilitation Center, the divorce became final. In July he went to a nursing home in Rhode Island. Six months after the fire, he was released and moved in with his sister and her family. He visits with his own children on weekends; he can make out their faces only dimly. "My 3-year-old doesn't understand why I can't unwrap his fruit roll-ups," he says.
Because the heat bothers him so much, Williams needed air conditioning at his sister's house; the Station Family Fund helped pay for it, as well as a hospital bed in his room. "Within a week after my sister called them, they sent me a check for $4,000," he says. He has started receiving Social Security disability benefits, which don't cover his living expenses.
For last week's fund-raiser, another survivor drove him to the club. Once he was there, others pitched in to help him find his way to the bar and the bathroom. He hung on to Victoria Potvin's waist as she led him through the crowd to a seat.
BELLA ENGLISH
