He has to be careful of how he handles the bags. Although his skin looks tough and leathery, it can be easily torn open by the serrated edge of a brown paper bag. His contorted hands grasp cans and boxes of food and gently pack them. A woman and her children place their food on the conveyer belt. He feels the woman staring at the pink, scarred flesh that runs down the left side of his face into his neck. He matches her stare. She quickly looks away with embarrassment and pulls her children close to her side as if he were contagious.

Rob Davison is used to people looking at his scars. For the past 10 years, this 21-year-old from Aurora has endured stares from most people he encounters. While he has made attempts to live a normal life — attending college, working at Giant Eagle — he still faces each day with difficulty. Rob, who will come to Kent State this spring, says the stares and reactions make him more conscious of how different he really is.

Rob says he would rather have people ask him what happened than simply stare or look away. “Don’t ignore me,” he says, assisted by his mother’s translation. “Don’t look away like I’m not here. Instead, ask me what’s wrong or what happened. One word can cure it: Fire.”

Ten years ago Rob was trapped in a fire at his home. He suffered third- and fourth-degree burns over 85 percent of his body. The only parts not burned were his feet and genitals. The scars permanently altered his physical appearance. His index fingers were burned down to the knuckles, and his earlobes were hardened.

Despite his deformities, Rob says he made a conscious decision not to pity himself. He wants to live life like anyone else.

“I admire him a lot for his courage,” his father, Mike Davison, says. “The doctors thought Rob would be a vegetable if he came out of the accident alive, but he refused to give in. He’s a fighter. He overcomes any obstacle set out in front of him.”

The smoke alarm went off at 2 a.m. on Feb. 10, 1992. It was an electrical fire that started in the wall of the living room. In 13 minutes, the Davisons’ home was engulfed in flames.

Mike and Carla Davison managed to get Rob’s younger siblings, Matt and Nicole, out through a bedroom window. Mike searched for Rob on his hands and knees but couldn’t find him. Rob got trapped trying to escape. He made it from his bedroom to the kitchen area before he lost consciousness from smoke inhalation.

Mike tried to let smoke out through a window so he could find Rob but was blown out the window by an explosion. Mike and a neighbor attempted to get back inside the house but failed because the door was swollen shut from the heat of the fire.

The Aurora Police kicked down the kitchen door to rescue Rob. He was transferred to Cleveland Metro Hospital by life-flight. His heart stopped beating once on the way and another five times at the hospital.
After two and a half weeks, Rob was transferred to the Shriners Hospital in Cincinnati, where his burns were treated for two more months. Then he was transferred to Health Hill Hospital for Children in Shaker Heights, where he was treated for complications from smoke inhalation.

Rob has suffered 50 strokes and, in the past 10 years, has had a total of 97 operations. Acting spontaneously is still tough. It took him two years to walk again. He says he still has to think through every small task like opening a box.

Speaking has been difficult, too, because of damage to his vocal cords. It took him eight years to speak well enough to hold conversations. His voice is muffled. Every word is a breath, making it difficult to understand.

Although he can vocalize, it is still difficult for people to comprehend what he is saying. One of his parents usually has to translate for him.

“At first Rob used a talking machine, much like a mini-computer, to vocalize with people,” Carla Davison says. “After a while he got sick of it and refused to use it at all. He had a stoma stent placed in his throat instead of a trach because it allowed for more vocalization and sounds.”

A trach has a harness-type device that ties around the neck to hold it in place, and it also has a breathing tube, which sticks out of the neck about an inch. The stoma stent is more internal because there is no harness around the neck, and the tube is inside the throat. Rob says he also likes the fact that the stoma stent can be concealed more easily than the trach.

Despite this accommodation, he says, he still has had to alter his career goals. He originally wanted to go to college to become a teacher, but communication barriers have forced him to pursue computers.

His injuries have compromised his college living situation.

He pursued an associate’s degree of applied sciences from Ohio University through a distance learning program last year. He chose Kent State because it was closer to home, and he could actually attend classes on campus. He says he would eventually like to live in the dorms.

Rob’s unstable airway, however, needs to be monitored at all times by a nurse or skilled person who knows CPR. Breathing in the hot air during the fire melted his trachea. His entire airway was filled with blisters that eventually turned into scar tissue. Doctors surgically removed the scar tissue, but it left his airway very thin and flimsy. Any cold or infection in his throat can cause a major problem because Rob can’t cough up anything.

“I feel like I am missing something, but I’m not sure what just yet,” Rob says. “I miss having my individual freedom that I used to have. I can’t just get up and go like I did before without someone accompanying me. I know now I took just walking down the street by myself for granted.”

Rob says he doesn’t focus too much on the “what ifs” because they would depress him. Instead he and his father, Mike, try to make an example of their experience by speaking on behalf of Shriners Hospital across northeast Ohio about the importance of home smoke alarms.

Rob tells people he found strength to endure the physical pain and mental anguish through his faith in God. He truly believes now, he says, that he is here for a reason. His family also has been supportive.
“We really pulled together as a family for Rob,” Carla says. “I think most families wouldn’t have been able to deal with the stress, but we just dealt with the problems at hand and moved on. Laughter has been our biggest remedy so far.”
Just because Rob looks different on the outside, his siblings don’t treat him any differently. Nicole, his 14-year-old sister, says he is still the same funny and sarcastic brother she has always known.
“I don’t baby him or treat him any differently,” she says. “We tease each other every chance we get just like any normal brother and sister. Having Rob as a brother is no different than having Matt,” her 15-year-old brother.

Rob still enjoys the same activities as he did before, such as music, computers and collecting key chains. Although these aspects of his life remain constant, he says he still feels out of sync and longs for a normal life.
“I feel like I have become invisible because I don’t have any social interaction with people outside of my family and nurses,” Rob says. “I just want to live a normal life. All people have to do is look in my eyes and see that there is a normal 21-year-old guy inside this shell.”