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Calif. Teen Healing In Baltimore After Marshmallow Roasting Explosion

BALTIMORE (WJZ)--A California teen suffers devastating injuries during her junior year of high-school.

As Amy Yensi reports, her determination to get better is what led her to Baltimore.

At 17, girls pick out prom dresses and fill out college applications. That's not what 17 is like for Nicolette Lewis.

Last summer, Lewis, her twin sister and two best friends, were roasting marshmallows, when a canister burst into flames, burning more than 25% of her body, including her face, neck, and chest.

"First I screamed and then I thought in my mind, this can't be happening to me," said Lewis.

Two months in the hospital, then the California teen went to the Angel Faces Retreat for girls with facial burns. There, she learned about Baltimore Doctor Leigh Ann Price.

The reconstructive surgeon uses medicinal leech therapy and a hyperbaric oxygen chamber. Lewis flies cross-country for treatment at MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital.

"I think each time you do a surgery and you take away or erase the physical scar, it allows emotional healing," said Dr. Leigh Ann Price.

Nicolette spends 2 hours in that chamber twice a day. She says it's not intimidating and she's willing to try treatments that works.

"Burns are cruel they're just really cruel and that's the thing that's hard to find words for," Nicolette's mother says.

There's one word that's not in Nicolette's vocabulary: victim. She and the three girls who saw the accident, started Kids Healing Kids, a burn-victim support group.

"I'm looking forward to college and med-school and I'm looking forward to just being happier," said Lewis.

Nicolette says Dr. Price has made such an impact on her life, she wants to be a reconstructive surgeon so she can help children.

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