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 Still's First Mission |
 
Patients get trip to launch Susan Still's father will take six children, three adult burn victims on tour of space center
Web posted June 29, 1997
By Amy Joyner
On Tuesday, she will have a much better view.
Camille is among nine burn patients the astronaut's father has invited to Florida for the launch. Dr. Joe Still is a plastic surgeon at the burn center at Columbia Augusta Medical Center.
``I'm really honored that he thought to invite us,'' said Camille, who lives in Gastonia, N.C., but comes to the Augusta burn center frequently for treatment.
On Monday, six children and three adult patients will accompany Dr. Still and his family on a tour of Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.
``This is probably one of the neatest summers she's ever had. And me, too,'' said Sharon Meeks, who will accompany her daughter Megan to the launch.
The tour bus will stop near the launch pad, and the patients will have a chance to talk with Lt. Cmdr. Still and her six shuttle crewmates across a 20-foot gulf. (The astronauts are under quarantine until the launch and can have close contact only with family members who have passed a NASA physical.)
Nine-year-old Kendall Martin, who lives in McConnells, S.C., said she wants to ask Lt. Cmdr. Still what it's like to fly in space and how it feels to pilot the space shuttle.
If Kendall were the pilot, ``I would probably feel maybe a little bit nervous but excited because I would actually get to fly the space shuttle and I'd get to go up in space,'' she said.
But she'd rather be a surgeon, like Dr. Still.
``I think he's my favorite doctor,'' she said. ``He's really good at it, too.''
Kendall was burned in a gasoline fire Sept. 10, 1990, a month shy of her third birthday. She suffered second- and third-degree burns over 44 percent of her body, mostly on her extremities, arms, legs and face.
Megan Meeks, 9, also wants to be a physician like Dr. Still. Megan was burned three years ago when her father's car radiator blew. She was playing near the car.
``I think he's real nice and gentle and he's good with kids,'' Megan said of Dr. Still. ``I think he would say I'd make a good burn doctor.''
Zachary Black, 14, loves and respects his doctor, too, but he'd rather follow in Lt. Cmdr. Still's more adventurous footsteps.
``She's cool,'' said Zach, who lives in Seneca, S.C. ``I want to go fly jets, like F-15s.''
In December, Zachary poured gasoline into a woodburning heater at his grandmother's house. The house burned down, and Zachary was severely burned over 50 percent of his body.
``If Dr. Still hadn't been there, I don't feel my son would have made it,'' said his mother, Donna Nicholson. ``I can't thank that man enough.''
With the trip to Florida, Dr. Still is once again reaching out ``to make these kids' lives a little better,'' she said.
``He's a blessing.''
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