North Naples burn victim fights for custody of children

NORTH NAPLES, Fla. A woman who suffered severe burns trying to keep a fiery pan of burning food away from her children is fighting to get those children back.

Nicole Brooks was evicted from her home at the Brittany Bay Apartments as she recovered from the burns she suffered in August 2016, and the Florida Department of Children and families placed her four children in foster care.

Brooks slipped as a railing gave way on a staircase as she was trying to carry the pan out of her home, causing hot oil to come into contact with her skin. She sustained third- and fourth-degree burns on 40 percent of her body.

“When the incident happened, I sizzled like bacon,” she said.

She spent more than a month in Tampa General Hospital receiving skin grafts, and she lost much of her hair. Doctors have told her the hair won’t grow back, she said.

“I know inside I won’t be normal again,” Brooks said. “I won’t be the same person I once was. I always used to be the cheerleader, infatuated with my looks. This is very, very hard for me.”

Brooks was pregnant with the fourth when she was burned, and soon after she was released from the hospital, she gave birth prematurely to a son who spent three weeks in intensive care because he was withdrawing from the pain medication Brooks was on.

She’s staying with friends as she tries to pay medical bills in excess of $300,000. But her primary concern is collecting baby items in an effort to get custody of her children again, she said.

The children stayed with a family friend while Brooks was hospitalized, and DCF placed them in foster care Jan. 23. Their father is in a Georgia jail.

Brooks’ custody case will be reviewed next month, and she’s optimistic, if for no other reason than her survival through the past year.

“To know that I made it through something like that when I really shouldn’t have, that gives me hope,” Brooks said.

DCF wouldn’t address the case specifically but issued the following statement:

“Removals occur for a myriad of factors that contribute to a caregiver’s inability to adequately and safely parent their children at that time. Every case is handled individually and the investigator will take all of the available information at the time to make the best decision they can for the safety of the child.”