(Photo Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
It’s often said that being burned is the most painful injury a human can endure.
Elisa Lozano and Kai Levenson-Cupp can attest to that. When Lozano was 7, she was in a car that crashed and exploded, burning her across 73 percent of her body and severely damaging one hand. When Levenson-Cupp was 15 months old, she reached up to a table in her grandmother’s kitchen and pulled a cup of scalding-hot tea on top of her.
“It’s excruciating, physically, mentally and spiritually,” said Lozano, 31, of West Oakland. The mother of two spent 10 months in Children’s Hospital after the 1994 accident and experienced agonizing rehabilitation and dozens of corrective surgeries until she was 21.
But she and 16-year-old Levenson-Cupp, of Alameda, also speak of the healing power of survivors banding together and reminding one another they’re not alone.
