PROVIDENCE -- John F. Van Deusen III has not had a chance to talk with his family since he was injured in The Station fire. But they've been talking to him -- almost every day.
Van Deusen, 39, is the sickest of the fire survivors at Rhode Island Hospital -- the only one who is still listed in critical condition there. More than five weeks after the fire, he remains in a medication-induced coma, with a ventilator helping him breathe.
When his father, mother and sister visit Van Deusen, they bring messages from relatives, friends and strangers; they tell him he's doing well; and they make jokes. They're pretty sure that he hears them. When they played a tape recording from his 7-year-old son, Dylan, tears formed in the corners of his eyes.
Like most of those hurt in the fire, Van Deusen, 39, suffered severe inhalation injuries. He was also burned over 35 percent of his body. But what has made things especially tough on him, his parents say, is that he already had kidney problems before the fire -- and the injuries he experienced are rough on the kidneys. Still, he has managed to overcome pneumonia, septic shock and kidney failure.
"He's fighting for his life," says his father, John F. Van Deusen II, 61. "He's not had it easy."
Nor has it been easy on his family, who live in Southeastern Massachusetts. His parents, Janet and John, and his sister, Teri Van Deusen, stopped to talk about it in the hospital cafeteria one recent night, after they drove an hour from Carver, Mass., to visit John Van Deusen III.
His father, retired from his job as a mechanic for the electric company, says he sleeps poorly at night and tries to distract himself during the day by working and playing games on his computer.
Teri Van Deusen, 40, also doesn't sleep well most nights, and finds it hard to focus on her office job at Suddard Ford, in Wareham, Mass. Asked whether she was close to her brother, Teri tears up. "We had our share of differences over the years. I had lived with him for a while last summer, and we became closer." She struggles for words. "I'm thankful that God gave me a chance to tell him how much I do care about him."
Her father tosses a packet of Kleenex across the table to her. "I never carried those till recently," he remarks ruefully.
Janet Van Deusen, 61, says she's "doing fairly well." With her husband and daughter taking it so hard, she says, "I've been trying to stay strong for them." She credits her faith in God and the support of family and friends, who've helped with everything, even donating gas money for the long drives to Providence.
Janet Van Deusen describes her son as an outgoing, happy-go-lucky guy who "liked living sort of in the fast lane," and who usually had a smile on his face "and a twinkle in his eye." The only thing he feared, she says, was fire: He's had a lifelong fear of dying in a fire. He is devoted to his two sons, John Van Deusen IV, 17, of South Middleboro, Mass., and Dylan, 7, of New Bedford, Mass., and his nephews, Matthew Van Deusen, 19, and Andrew Knight, 14, both of Wareham.
Van Deusen lived most recently with his parents, in Carver, out of work and suffering from weakened kidneys. He had worked previously as a mechanic and as an agricultural worker in the cranberry bogs.
On Feb. 20, he went to the Great White concert at the West Warwick nightclub with his girlfriend. At 7 a.m. the following day, a friend called the house to check whether he had returned from the concert. That's when his parents heard about the fire -- but Janet Van Deusen didn't dare turn on the television. "Not knowing if my son was dead or alive, I did not want to look at those pictures," she says.
So, Teri's 19-year-old son, Matthew, took over the search for his uncle. He called every number listed on the television screen, until at late morning, he located Van Deusen at Rhode Island Hospital. Van Deusen's parents and sister headed immediately to Providence.
They found Van Deusen unconscious, innumerable tubes attached to his body, shaking from the force of the ventilator that was breathing for him.
"It was scary," his father recalls. "I've seen a lot in my life, but that was bad." In the first days, the doctors said he had a 50-percent chance of survival. The odds have since improved, but many struggles lie ahead. Van Deusen was burned over his shoulders, arms and hands, as well as part of his back, side, chest and head. He continues to rely on the ventilator at night, and his mother says he probably won't be brought out of the coma for another week or so.
"We can't say enough about the staff. They're fantastic," Janet Van Deusen says of the Rhode Island Hospital doctors and nurses. "They're doing everything humanly possible for him."
The day after the fire, Dawn Moquin, the mother of Van Deusen's younger son, set up a Web site for Van Deusen (http://www34.brinkster.com/message2jvd/) offering daily updates on his condition. They chronicle Van Deusen's bumpy medical journey.
Feb. 28: The first skin grafts.
March 4: Kidneys fail; dialysis starts. Pneumonia sets in; antibiotics started.
March 8: Goes into septic shock, a life-threatening condition in which bacteria get into the bloodstream and overwhelm the body.
March 12: A day of skin-graft surgery.
March 19: Pneumonia and blood infection improve.
March 26: Kidneys improve, dialysis discontinued.
March 27: More surgery to redo skin grafts that didn't take.
The Web site also features a guest book where anyone can leave the injured man a message. Van Deusen will have a lot of reading to do when he wakes up: Well-wishers have filled more than 10 pages.
And when he comes to, he'll find out that his girlfriend was severely hurt in the fire, and another friend, Dale Latulippe, was killed. He will learn about the extent of his injuries and the months of painful recuperation that lie ahead.
"It's not anything that's going to be over, ever, to be honest," Janet Van Deusen says.
How will he handle it?
"I've heard and seen people who've been through similar circumstances," says his father. "Sometimes they turn bitter. Sometimes they get a new lease on life." He doesn't know which way his son will go.
Teri Van Deusen, asked what she thinks, finds herself crying again. She is only 10 months older than John. As kids, their mother remembers, "They fought like cats and dogs."
They were also partners in some major mischief, including filling the house with smoke, by pouring sugar into a heating vent, and decorating walls and furniture with turquoise enamel paint. Teri smiles, remembering the preschoolers' effort to "help" their mother paint the house.
Of the future, she says, "I try not to think about that. I don't think he's going to deal with this very well."
Back at her home in Wareham, Teri Van Deusen places her own entry in her brother's online guestbook. "Just remember that I love you," she writes, adding in capital letters: "I AM GOING TO BE RIGHT BY YOUR SIDE TO HELP YOU THROUGH ALL OF THIS."
A benefit account has been established: The John F. Van Deusen III Benefit Account, Rockland Trust, 124 Main St., Carver, MA 02330.
