A day in the life of a White Island burns survivor - Stephanie Browitt's eye-opening recovery

A young survivor of the Whakaari/White Island volcano eruption has opened up about what day to day life is like as she recovers from three-degree burns from 70 per cent of her body. Photo / File

A young survivor of the Whakaari/White Island volcano eruption has opened up about what day to day life is like as she recovers from three-degree burns on 70 per cent of her body.

Stephanie Browitt, who also lost part of her fingers, was in hospital for six months before beginning her recovery at home.

Now the brave survivor has taken to social media to share the gruelling nature of her rehab, detailing each step she needs to follow to recover from her injuries.

"The day in the life of a burns survivor. First of all, I wash my hard mask and the silocin I have to wear at night. Then I leave it there to dry," Browitt says, while showing viewers each piece of equipment.

Every evening Stephanie has to wear a face mask. Photo / Stephanie Browitt / @Stephywaby96

With 70 per cent of her body burned, the 23-year-old owns at least four large bottles of moisturiser essential to her recovery.

"Then I have to moisturise my whole body. As you can see I go through so much so we have heaps of bottles.

"Then I get dressed and put all my body garments on."

Browitt then turned the camera to her body garments, showing herself putting on leggings similar to sports skins worn by athletes around the world.

Every day Stephanie needs to wear clothing garments to protect her skin. Photo / Stephanie Browitt / @Stephywaby96

Despite a long road to recovery, Browitt poked fun at one of the procedures she needs to go through every day, jokingly describing one of her mouthpieces as a "torture device".

"Then I use the torture device, sorry, I mean the mouth retractor which I use to stretch my mouth for an hour," she said while showing viewers the dental item.

"While I'm sitting there doing that I'll draw on my iPad or watch TV.

"Then I'll do physio. Yesterday I did some core and it left me in a lot of pain so today I decided to do some leg exercises."

But Browitt's lengthy rehab routine isn't finished there. The 23-year-old has do work on her hands every day in a bid to drop the sensitivity she feels.

Browitt is seen putting her hand in a bowl of rice and moving it around, a common practice used to help people with hand injuries get used to touching again.

"I'll then do some hand therapy. and today I decided to do some desensitisation work.

"Then I'll head to bed and wear a face mask and silocin again and wear hand splints."

Stephanie goes through hand therapy and exercise every day. Photo / Stepganie Browitt / @Stephywaby96

A young survivor of the Whakaari/White Island volcano eruption has opened up about what day to day life is like as she recovers from three-degree burns from 70 per cent of her body. Photo / File

Browitt's eye-opening video has been liked more than 1.5 million times.

The Australian lost her sister and father during the eruption.

The Browitt family from Melbourne were cruise ship passengers on board Ovation of the Seas to celebrate Krystal Browitt's 21st birthday when she, her father and Stephanie took an excursion to White Island with other tourists on December 9.

In June, she revealed she had to have her fingers amputated.

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Funnily enough, when I found out my fingers had to go I wasn’t that upset. I think I was grateful that I still had my hands because when the eruption happened, I remember seeing my hands and realising how bad they were. My nails were hanging off, skin in shreds and also peeling off and they were black and red in colour, (blood/ash). I was told they were one of the worst burns to hands they had ever seen. So I was extremely grateful it was just my first 2 joints of my fingers being amputated. What I didn’t realise was, how much that would actually effect my function and fine motor skills. You really don’t realise how much your body does for you until you lose the ability to do so. As you can see my L hand has a lot more range, the thumb can open up wider and nearly touch my pinky. My R hand is my bad hand, the fingers can’t bend / straighten as much and the thumb can only just make it underneath my other fingers. Future surgeries will happen but I’m getting as much from therapy as I can first. Seeing the progress with my hands definitely makes my day, month and year though! Although it’s slow it’s such a big deal for me. I saw photos of my hands when I was first admitted to hospital to compare them to now and I can honestly never be more grateful enough towards the surgeons at The Alfred. They put so much care into my hands with my skin grafts and they’ve healed amazingly. I look forward to seeing more progress and achievements everyday. 🙌🏻 #whiteislanderuption #whiteisland #survivor #progress

A post shared by Stephanie Coral Browitt (@stephaniecoral96) on Jun 28, 2020 at 11:59pm PDT

"I wasn't that upset.

"I was grateful I still had my hands because when the eruption happened I remember seeing my hands and realising how bad they were.

"My nails were hanging off, skin in shreds and also peeling off and they were black and red in colour, [blood/ash]".

Browitt spoke of her recovery journey, revealing the hurdles she had to overcome with her hands, since being dragged off the island.

"What I didn't realise was, how much that would actually affect my function and fine motor skills," she wrote about her injuries.

"You really don't realise how much your body does for you until you lose the ability to do so."

She explained that her thumb can almost touch her pinky on her left hand, while she can barely move what is left of her right hand at all.

"The fingers can't bend/straighten as much and the thumb can only just make it underneath my other fingers," she wrote about her right hand.

"My legs needed multiple surgeries before they were fully covered, so I'd be up and walking [sort of] and then I'd need another surgery and I'd be set back all over again. It was really upsetting."

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In February I was still having skin grafts/surgeries done in hospital. One of the last places to receive skin were my legs because I didn’t have any spots left for them to take from, so they had to wait for my donor spots to heal so they could take more again. My legs needed multiple surgeries before they were fully covered, so I’d be up and walking (sort of) and then I’d need another surgery and I’d be set back all over again. It was really upsetting. I had another surgery on my legs and they took some skin from my thighs and behind my knee cap. Let me tell you, the donor sites are the most painful things I’ve ever experienced. One of my favourite burns nurses told me after I woke up, “You’ll be walking in 2 days.” Me being in so much pain angrily said, “Nope.” She goes, “yeah you will,” and walks off. 2 days later and it’s time for the much dreaded Physio. I have 2 of them helping me lean on my side and slowly stand up using a walker. That takes about 15 minutes, I’m already in tears from the pain and just wanting to be done. Then they want me to take some steps... because skin was taken from behind my knee I couldn’t bend my leg. I had slowly taken a few steps and then the burns nurse comes into my room and says, “I told you you’d be walking!” My pain turns to frustration. “No. I don’t want to do this! I just want to disappear! I wish I could just hide somewhere ahh!” All the while I’ve bolted from my room out into halls to get away from everyone and she shouts, “Just remember you have to walk back again.” I slowly make my way back and try to hide my smile because of how I just surprised myself, still in pain. Once I’m back the nurse tells me, “I could just see the determination in your eyes as you got annoyed at me,” while holding back a cheeky laugh. Honestly when I think of this moment it makes me laugh so much, but it also taught me something. Determination doesn’t always look the same in different situations. And even if you don’t realise it, it’s always there inside of you. You can do anything as long as you don’t tell yourself the opposite. I didn’t want to do physio because it was so painful... but when they came around I never said no. 👊🏻

A post shared by Stephanie Coral Browitt (@stephaniecoral96) on Jul 19, 2020 at 1:31am PDT

She revealed that taking skin from the donor sites on her body was "the most painful things I've ever experienced" and the repeated surgeries took a massive toll.

She shared how, after surgery to remove skin from her thighs and behind her kneecap, she woke to one of her favourite burns nurses telling her "You'll be walking in two days".

"Me being in so much pain angrily said, 'Nope'. She goes, 'yeah you will,' and walks off," Browitt wrote.

Even though she is proud of her progress so far, Browitt said she was still haunted by the events that took place.

"Honestly, every time it's the ninth of each month I can feel my heart racing and my body tense as the memory of it floods back in my mind," Browitt wrote on Instagram on the six-month anniversary of the eruption.

"I get anxious. I hate it so much, it does not get easier. It just hurts more and more when I think about how much time has passed since I was last with my dad and sister."

Her mother, who chose to stay back on the cruise docked in Tauranga when the rest of her family visited the island, has been by Browitt's side since.