Basic medical care and the prayers of his parents proved the doctors wrong, but Dave had many challenges ahead of him. He had lost his right hand, several of the fingers on his left hand, and was seriously disfigured. He also suffered burns on his arms and legs.

Much to his parents’ credit, they mainstreamed Dave in school and told him he could accomplish whatever he worked for. As a boy, Dave played baseball and the trombone, and developed an outgoing personality, due in part to his seven siblings.

Dave’s teenage years held more challenges from a lack of opportunity and the loss of a sense of direction. He paid little attention to his studies and barely graduated from high school. When a doctor directed him to a college scholarship opportunity, he realized it was his last chance and grabbed it. Six years later, he had bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics and finance. Today he is a director in the Investments and Capital Markets Division of Freddie Mac in McLean, Virginia.

In 1995 Dave married Kerry and together they formed Flicker of Hope Foundation with the purpose of providing family support and educational scholarships to other burn survivors. Dave also serves as a counselor at area burn camps and works toward the re-instatement of the original Safe Sleepwear Standard, weakened by the Consumer Product Safety Commission in 1996. He is also involved in fire safety promotion and education.

This is the story of how a seriously challenged young man turned frustration into ambition, agitation into determination and fierce independence into a resolve to help others finding their way on the grueling road he knows so well.