In 2014, Andrea Hope Rubin was a 49-year-old health insurance sales representative. She had just started this job, having previously been employed in marketing and advertising, and was looking forward to her first busy season. One evening, as she was turning around in a parking lot, her car got stuck after a tire slipped off the pavement. As she tried to dislodge the car by alternating between drive and reverse, the motion caused a spark that set the car on fire. The inside of the car quickly filled with carbon monoxide and she lost consciousness. Andrea suffered a 58% TBSA burn with third-degree burns to her face, ears, head, chest, arms, back, and legs. She suffered fourth-degree burns to her lower right arm, which was subsequently amputated just below the elbow. She also lost partial vision in her right eye. Her scalp was so badly burned that her hair will never regrow. (Gerrek, 2018).
Since her injury, Andrea has been recognized as an inspirational and a much sought-after speaker. The MetroHealth Foundation (Cleveland, OH) awarded her the John A. Gannon Angel Award in 2022. This award is given to a burn survivor who has turned their experience into a way to advocate for others going through similar experiences. She was also the patient of honor at The MetroHealth System’s 2018 biannual gala. In 2019, Andrea was a co-presenter for the John P. McGovern Lecture at the University of Texas Medical Branch-Galveston and her story was highlighted by the American Academy of Ophthalmology. In 2017, she was a member of an esteemed panel on burn ethics at the annual conference of the American Society for Bioethics & Humanities. Andrea has been an invited speaker at the annual meeting of the American Burn Association and has repeatedly been asked to present to medical students, bioethics graduate students, undergraduate students, and high school students.
Andrea is the co-author of an article about the problems patients encounter after discharge and was the focus of an article written about ethical issues in burn care. She has been interviewed on podcasts and for newspaper articles. The documentary about Andrea for The MetroHealth System’s Gala won a local Emmy Award.
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Documentaries and Interviews
Articles