The pain of severe burn is said to be greater than that of any other injury. In Something Close to Hell, burn survivors speak about their particular ordeal and the slow road to recovery. Beyond the physical trauma, there are also psychological consequences. Burn survivors feel a sense of grief, mourning the loss of the person they once were. In addition to anger and depression, there is the fear of public reaction to their disfigurement.
Serious crises can occur months, even years, after discharge from the hospital.
Among those we meet are Neil Cowley whose promising football career ended when he was badly burnt in a trailer fire. His diary narrates the recovery process with its psychological stresses. This film also shows the surgical procedures associated with skin grafting and gives voice to hospital personnel involved in the recovery process. The most shocking example is in pediatric surgery, where major procedures are sometimes executed without anaesthesia. The rationale is that newborns do not feel pain and that anaesthetics might harm seriously ill infants.