Abbey Alexander had moved to Cambodia with her family and got a job teaching English. She was on her way back to school from her lunch break on Aug. 14, 2019 when all of a sudden there was a gas explosion on the street in Siem Reap.
Five years after suffering burns all over her body in a gas explosion, Abbey Alexander is "happier than ever," the 23-year-old wrote on Reddit.
Updates on the social media site are something she's been sharing every since the accident. This one she was excited to post.
"Almost 5 years post burn! Didn’t know how I’d ever live a normal life or be happy again. Now I’m engaged, pregnant, and happier than ever," it read in full.
Alexander had moved to Cambodia with her family and got a job teaching English. She was on her way back to school from her lunch break on Aug. 14, 2019 when all of a sudden there was a gas explosion on the street in Siem Reap.
"The whole building exploded. We got caught in the fireball," she recalls to Inside Edition Digital. "We were only in it for I'd say half a second. I stopped, dropped, and rolled afterwards, and I got ran over by a car. That was my type of luck that day."
A co-worker took them to a hospital about a half a mile down the road. Then, there was a bit of red tape to get her flown back to the U.S. for medical treatment since she didn't have international health insurance.
"Because I didn't have international health insurance, the U.S. Embassy and the State Department had to get me out of there," Alexander explains. "I had to get the biggest repatriation loan in United States history – $250,000. So because of that, they took away my passport until I can pay that back." She has since filed for bankruptcy in hopes to get her passport back.
SInce the explosion, the burns have healed. But there is still some scarring. "I have not taken care of them as best as I should have. You're supposed to wear compression gear for 23 hours a day for the first year, and I'm still supposed to keep them out of the sun. I don't listen to that. I try to keep up on my sunscreen. But I was a stubborn 18-year-old when I got burned that thought I was invincible, so I didn't take the best care of them. But overall, I'm pretty happy with them."
For the past few years, Alexander has been living in Glendive, Montana, working as a teacher's aide for students with special needs. She is active in some online burn support groups and has been using humor as a way to heal from the horror she endured.
"There's days where I still wake up and I hate the way my scars look. I hate the way people stare at me out in public. I miss my old body, especially seeing memories of what I looked like before I was burned and everything. And then I'm just like, well, screw it. Because at the end of the day, who actually gets exploded in Cambodia. To start out with, that's kind of a crazy story that I can even be able to tell. It's a good icebreaker at the bar," she says.
Her parents and brother still live in Cambodia. She'd like to return too – if she can ever get her passport back.
"If I ever have a chance, I would love to meet with the owner on the gas station just to try to get some answers. But I don't see that ever happening," she says looking for closure.
Related Stories
