Boy who survived frightening backyard accident helps launch new outpatient burn clinic

Boy wearing a reddish button up shirt, jeans and sneakers is sitting on a clinical exam table high-fiving a doctor wearing a white coat.

Dominic Sansone, 8, with Dr. Steven Kahn, chief of Burn Surgery at MUSC Health. Photos by Julie Taylor

When the team from The South Carolina Burn Center at MUSC Health invited Devin Sansone and his son, Dominic, to the ribbon cutting for the new Shriners Children’s outpatient burn clinic, Sansone said it was an easy yes. “Anything we can do to help. I mean, they gave me my kid back.”

Dominic, a third grader who was badly burned in a backyard accident during a kids’ party, will come in for regular visits at the new clinic on Doughty Street in Charleston. His father is amazed by and grateful for Dominic’s recovery. “It’s a miracle. God is good.”

His son, now 8, has come a long way since he was rushed to The South Carolina Burn Center last year. “He was on ECMO,” Sansone said, referring to extracorporeal membrane oxygenation – a form of life support that temporarily helped Dominic’s heart and lung function. That let him rest and recover right after his traumatic injury.

Dominic spent a total of three months in the MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital. “We had 40 doctors on his case. It felt like we had the whole Shawn Jenkins team when we did our lineups in the morning,” Sansone said of the daily check-ins with the care team.

Burns can affect multiple areas of the body – not just the skin and lungs but also other organs. They can cause infections as well, which Dominic dealt with.

While the Charleston-area boy’s burns were severe, he’s far from alone in suffering burn injuries. An estimated 100,000 children are hospitalized or treated in an emergency department for burns every year in the United States, according to a report in the Journal of Burn Care & Research.

That’s a lot of kids, many of whom need specialized care from burn specialists. MUSC Children’s Health has the only pediatric burn center and the only comprehensive burn center in South Carolina.

Shriners Children’s, for decades, has provided the gold standard in pediatric burn care.

Dr. Steven Kahn Chief of Burn Surgery at MUSC Health

The South Carolina Burn Center at MUSC Health is one of the few centers in the United States performing minimally invasive skin grafting for children. It first announced its affiliation with Shriners Children’s in 2022, a connection that has grown in the years since.

“Shriners Children’s, for decades, has provided the gold standard in pediatric burn care,” said Steven Kahn, M.D., chief of Burn Surgery at MUSC Health, systemwide burn service line leader for Shriners Children’s and the leader of the team that established The South Carolina Burn Center in 2020.

“We are cross-pollinating ideas and developing novel systems to deliver burn care, such as this new clinic. And I think that when you combine the legacy strength with newest innovative work that we’re doing here, you end up with a great relationship that meaningfully changes burn care.”

That relationship led to the new outpatient burn clinic, which opens its doors to patients in January 2027. It will replace the existing outpatient burn clinic in a new location with multiple treatment rooms and a gym specially designed for kids recovering from burn injuries.

Children and adults gather behind a large red ribbon. A man wearing a dark red Shriner's cap and navy suit cuts the ribbon with large scissors. Ribbon cutting for new Shriners Children’s outpatient burn clinic.

Dominic, first child from right, at the ribbon cutting for the new outpatient burn clinic. Other burn survivors, family members, MUSC leaders and Shriners were on hand as well.

“It’s brand new. State of the art. A facility that will allow room for growth. We can expand our reach outside of Charleston and South Carolina to the Southeast region – and eventually see international patients,” Kahn said. “It reflects the cutting-edge care our team is providing.”

Dominic’s dad has seen that cutting-edge care firsthand. “The doctors at MUSC performed treatments in various spur-of-the-moment situations – I think they’re just absolute saviors.”

Those doctors have expertise not just in burns but also in taking care of children as they grow. “Someone with an injury like Dominic’s, we’ll follow him until he’s an adult and maybe for life,” Kahn said.

“Scars change as people age. Sometimes the rest of the body grows up, but the scar stays tight, which can create impairment and affect the range of motion. And then people require procedures that they didn’t have to have when they were smaller.”

My hopes have already been met. He’s home. He’s running around doing kid stuff.

Devin Sansone Dominic's father

Dominic’s family knows he’ll need that ongoing care. When asked about his hopes for his son, Dominic’s dad had this to say.

“My hopes have already been met. He’s home. He’s running around doing kid stuff. And everything is cosmetic at this point. And I couldn’t be happier. I’m waiting on the rest of his laser treatments to go through so I can get matching tattoos on my legs. I was like, ‘If you’re going to wear the burns, dad will wear them, too.’”