The general story of David Njoku suffering serious burns from a bonfire accident is out there, but the Cleveland Browns tight end hadn’t gone into too much depth about it.
That is, until now, in a lengthy Instagram post that features Njoku’s doctor, Dr. Joseph Khouri, explaining how he burned 17-to-18% burn of his body with just about the most painful burns one can suffer.
Njoku didn’t miss a single game on account of his burn injuries. That’s one tough dude. Can you imagine being burned on your face to the degree that he was, still putting on a helmet, and banging your body around on an NFL field for 60 minutes? No thank you! Like, damn.
As for what led to the burns, Njoku described his typical routine of creating a bonfire every Friday night where he unwinds and meditates to set a good vibe for the weekend, leading into the typical Sunday game day. Unfortunately, he ran out of the lighter fluid he always uses for the bonfires, and tried a different one, which created a sort of chain-reaction inferno that blew up right in his face.
Instead of waiting for the Browns’ early Week 5 bye and not playing in Week 4’s matchup against the Baltimore Ravens, Njoku said it was “personal” and he was determined to play. Even with how much pain he was in. When sweat dripped down on his face, it would sting. When he removed his helmet, pieces of skin would come off with it. Every time his skin rubbed up against his helmet, he felt it.
Dr. Khouri’s quotes about the whole situation of Njoku actually playing are awesome:
“My recommendation was to not play, I think if I told him, ‘Look, this is an absolute no-go’… but David’s tough and David wanted to play.
If this was me or you off the street, it probably wouldn’t work. David, he’s a different species.”
Then, the doc explained that Njoku wanted to make sure he got his story out there. He wanted people to see what he went through. Now, Njoku is heavily involved and active within the American Burn Association. For his My Cause My Cleats campaign, he has one cleat that says, “American Burn Association” and another that says, “The flesh is weak.”
For those not on the ‘Gram, this may be an easier way to take in the full Njoku story:
It’s courageous for Njoku to be forthcoming about what happened to him. It’s even cooler that he’s speaking out in support of burn victims, who, as Dr. Khouri explains, can feel really down, isolated and discouraged just by their appearance. Hard to even begin to reflect on how traumatic something like that could be.
With the whirlwind of an NFL season happening in real time and Njoku making sure he can continue performing on the field after a serious, life-threatening incident, it’s quite impressive that he’s made the time to provide fuller details on what went down so soon. This story is coming out only about two months to the day from when Njoku played in that Ravens game and recorded a team-high six receptions for 46 yards.
Good on David Njoku all around. What an inspiring way to take a potential disaster scenario and spin it into something positive, for the betterment of so many other people.
