Dana Berden
Dylan and Emma Schneider
Sunday, July 27th, a 45 year old man from Waterford Township, his son, and his son’s close friend were attempting to start up a public boat when something went wrong and the ignition caused an explosion. While the man and his son got away with minor injuries, the same was not true for the friend, Dylan Schneider.
Schneider was left with more than 50% of his body covered in second and third degree burns. He was in the hospital for three weeks and arrived back home on August 13th. He is now home with his family in recovery and cannot return to school until October.
“My recovery has been pretty good. Everything’s been pretty good. What I’m struggling with…I can’t really go outside.” said Schneider.
Schneider’s family isn’t angry about the incident. They all agreed that accidents happen and no one is to blame for what happened. While no one is angry, the whole situation was stressful for the entire family.
Schneider has a younger sister, 13 year old Emma Schneider. She was at home when she heard about what happened.
“How I found out is I remember I was asleep on the couch…I woke up to my dad yelling and Dylan being caught on fire. I was terrified, but I didn’t think it would be bad. When I went to go see him I was horrified,” said Emma. “I’m relieved he’s home; I was really worried about him and the situation still bothers me knowing that happened to my own brother.”
Not only did it have an impact on Emma, but it was also stressful for both of her parents.
“It was hard to go back and forth to both kids,” said Emma and Dylan’s mom, Dana Berden. Emma also agreed that being home alone made her anxious, not being able to be with her family.
Schneider and his family are very grateful to have everything tame in their household again, things being back to normal for the most part. Schneider is back to his usual routine with his family taking care of him now that he is in better condition.
If you would like to show support for the family, this is a link to a GoFundMe going towards Schneider’s medical bills: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-local-teens-burn-recovery/cl/s?utm_campaign=fp_sharesheet&utm_content=amp13_t1&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link&lang=en_US&attribution_id=sl%3A30926288-80af-4210-b73e-0295c9b45ec7