Inspire 2023 ANNUAL REPORT

Straub Benioff: Healing and Hope After Maui Wildfires

Amy Chong, RN, Straub Benioff Burn Unit supervisor (in back), with Kula patient Judy McCorkle and her husband, Tom Reed.

The flames had spared their home.

One day after wind-whipped wildfires forced thousands on Maui to evacuate, Judy McCorkle and her husband returned to their Kula neighborhood. The 70-foot-tall cypress trees that had graced their yard for 20 years were uprooted. Judy walked through the yard to check for damage.

“I stepped on what I thought was solid soil,” she said. “My foot sank into a hot spot.”

In seconds, burning vegetation smoldering just below the surface badly burned her feet.

“I thought I was going into shock. I couldn’t stop shaking.”

Judy was medevaced to Straub Benioff Medical Center’s Burn Unit. She was one of nine people from Maui who needed the specialized care at Straub Benioff — the most patients ever from a single event in the Burn Unit’s 40-year history. A Maui physician called a colleague there and said, “Lahaina is gone.”

“We immediately set up, getting our census of intensive care unit beds and determining where to put patients,” said Dr. Robert Schulz, medical director of the Burn Unit.

When Dr. Schulz joined Straub Benioff in 1977, severe burns could not be treated in Hawai‘i. Some patients did not survive the journey to mainland specialists.

That is why Dr. Schulz co-founded the Burn Unit in 1983. Today, about 100 team members are certified in the intricate, complex care burns require. They work with psychologists, physical and occupational therapists, and others to help patients through what can be a painful and often emotional recovery.

The days following the fires were difficult. Some Burn Unit team members cared for patients while grappling with their own family’s losses in Lahaina and Kula. Still, Judy says their compassion helped her through.

“They are just unbelievable,” Judy said.

After 19 days, Judy returned home. She left behind an indelible mark. She and her friends helped raise nearly $100,000 for the Burn Unit, which depends on donors. So far, the gift has helped acquire technologically advanced equipment that cleans wounds and gathers skin grafts. But Judy’s other great gift, like many other burn survivors, has been her indomitable spirit, which continues to inspire those who cared for her.

“Treating them day-after-day creates extraordinary pain, but they get tearful when they leave because of what the unit means to them,” Dr. Schulz said.