TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

It happened so quickly -- just seconds before her mother could get there to stop it.

A bowl of water was boiling in the microwave. The timer went off. A 3-year-old girl determined to help her mommy.

The door popped open. Two small hands reached up.

"No, Trina! NO!"

But the moment couldn't be retrieved.

The scalding water landed on little Trina Headlee's face, neck, chest and abdomen.

It was more than the hospital in Ridgecrest could handle. Soon, Trina was on an air-ambulance transport to San Joaquin Community Hospital in Bakersfield. Trina had suffered serious burns over 20 percent of her body, and her father, Bryan Headlee, and her mother, Karen Slawinski, were suffering, too.

Parental guilt was already kicking in.

"It was so traumatic and devastating," Trina's dad said of the May 11 accident. "You start asking yourself, 'Why wasn't I there to prevent it?'"

But seven weeks later, the family has reason for optimism, even elation.

NEW CHOICES IN BURN CARE

Not only were doctors able to stabilize Trina and begin all appropriate treatment regimens -- including the use of cadaver skin on her face -- the hospital offered an important advantage burn victims in Kern County have never enjoyed until recently.

Just one year and one month in existence, The Aera Clinic-Grossman Burn Center has allowed the Headlees and hundreds of other area families remain in Kern County for outpatient treatment, rather than traveling weekly to Fresno or Los Angeles as so many local burn victims have had to do in decades past.

The Headlees moved to Bakersfield, where they hope to stay, to be closer to the burn center. It could be a year before Trina is completely recovered, they said.

"She's not supposed to have sun exposure, or even heat exposure," Bryan Headlee said. "I can't imagine driving up to Fresno every week."

'WE HAD NO IDEA'

When the Grossman Burn Center opened just down the street from San Joaquin Hospital in June 2009, hospital administrators had done their homework. They looked at how many local patients had been travelling to Sherman Oaks and Fresno for outpatient care. Using those numbers, they were able to estimate the level of need locally.

The projected numbers turned out to be a bit on the conservative side.

"We planned for about 120 patients per year," said Jacqui Pitt, the burn center's nursing manager. "In our first year, we saw 369 patients."

The need was three times greater than anyone had guessed. In the first year, patients have undergone more than 200 burn-related surgeries and the center has scheduled 1,067 outpatient visits.

"We were completely overwhelmed by the demand," said Physician Assistant Stephen Hanson. "We had no idea how many people were going to other burn centers."

PLAYING WITH FIRE

Brandon McDonald is only 16, so his mother will forgive him for using an open bucket to toss gasoline on a backyard campfire.

But it's something he will never do again -- not after fire travelled up his arm, leaving serious burns.

Last week, the teen sat in an examination room at the Grossman Burn Center as Nursing Supervisor Pitt unwrapped his bandaged forearm.

"Well, look at that. That looks fabulous," Pitt said in her lilting British accent.

A man of few words, Brandon agreed.

"Totally," he said.

Brandon must keep a rectangle-shaped wound on his upper thigh moisturized and covered until it heals. That's where Grossman medical professionals lifted a thin layer of his skin -- just 1/1,000th of an inch thick -- to use in a skin grafting procedure for his arm.

Brandon's mom, Helen McDonald, said the staff at the center has been able to take a traumatic situation and make it seem like a problem that can be solved.

"I think we have gotten the best treatment, the best care possible," she said.

'PROGRESSING AS A COMMUNITY'

One of the themes stressed over and over at the center is the love they have for their "family" of patients. But they tell them they would rather not meet them under such difficult circumstances if the burns could be prevented.

"With children, the vast majority we get are water burns," Hanson said. "We see an inordinate number of scalding burns in children."

To address that concern, Pitt gives regular talks at schools and businesses to raise public awareness of burn dangers. They also take a holistic approach with patients and their families, offering counseling and other support to help heal the psychological and emotional scars that often accompany serious burns.

Chris Bowles, a captain with the Bakersfield Fire Department and a spokesman for the Bakersfield Firefighters' Burn Foundation, has watched for years as the foundation supported the needs of burn victims as they travelled to burn centers in other areas.

"With burn injuries, you can require treatment for months," he said. "Some patients undergo numerous surgeries."

The advantage of having a burn center in Bakersfield can't be overstated, he said.

With the opening of the new center, "we are stepping forward; we are progressing as a community."

For the parents of little Trina, the center has been nothing less than a godsend.

"It's a miracle center," Trina's mom said. "It took weeks before I could go to sleep without nightmares.

"But I tear up every morning when I look at her face, the way it's healing," she said. "Without them, she wouldn't look like this."