Tag: UC Davis Medical Center

Family hosts blood drive after Red Cross assists following devastating home fire

By Stephen Walsh

At around 1 a.m. on August 29, 2023, Katie Mummert was awakened by the sound of her fiancé, Chuck, screaming at her from somewhere inside their Clearlake home. The house was on fire.

“The whole hall was just orange,” Katie said. “I panicked and ran into (daughter) Rose’s bedroom. As we stepped into the hallway, the glass doors in the hallway exploded on us. The floors were so hot, my skin was just melting off.”

As Katie got to the back door of the house she realized she had let go of her daughter. “Rose in still in there!” she yelled at Chuck.

Chuck then crawled back into the house, and retrieved eight-year-old Rose, who was unconscious.

Both Rose and Katie were hospitalized. Katie had sustained burns over 30 percent of her body. Rose’s burns covered 67 percent of her tiny frame.

The pair underwent treatment, which included many skin grafts, at UC Davis Medical Center and Shriners Hospital in Sacramento. Katie was hospitalized for two weeks and Rose for a more than two-and-a-half months.

Chuck Lamonte donates blood at UC Davis Medical Center alongside phlebotomist Brandy Synovec.
Photo by Lauria Puglia
Katie Mummert attends a blood drive at UC Davis held in honor of her and her daughter, Rose.
Photo by Laurie Puglia
Rose Mummert
Photo provided by Katie Mummert

During their recovery, Chuck came up with idea to have the American Red Cross host a blood drive in Katie and Rose’s name. It happened on October 20 at UC Davis Medical Center.

“Chuck was really inspired by both hospitals and their treatment of us,” Katie said, noting that the pair received blood products by way of the Red Cross during their hospitalization. “We wanted to be able to give back. Someone saved us by giving blood, so we could make a difference in somebody’s life. That’s why we hosted the drive.”

Strangers, friends, doctors and nurses were among those who donated blood that day, Katie said.

Today, Katie is celebrating her family’s continued recovery. “We are doing fantastic,” she said. “Rose is making leaps and bounds, racing me up the stairs, dancing. She’s very active.”

“Mentally it’s a lot, going from having the perfect life and a perfectly healthy child to a disabled wife and disabled child,” Katie said. “Chuck has been an absolute rock through all of this. If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t be alive.”

The Red Cross is continuously seeking returning and new blood donors. For information on future blood drives in your area, visit redcrossblood.org.