Veins of Hope

A week after two students were badly burned in a botched physics experiment, William S. Hart High School hosted the first of a series of blood drives for them and collected 200 pints from students, parents and others.

Christopher James, 17, who suffered second- and third-degree burns over 35% of his body, may benefit most from the drive because he will undergo multiple surgeries in coming months and his blood type is the rare O-negative.

Even as his supporters were donating blood, Christopher was undergoing his third operation since the accident, which occurred the day before Thanksgiving.

Meanwhile, school administrators said they have completed their investigation and are now awaiting reports from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s and Fire departments, which are still investigating the accident.

Christopher and Nolan LeMar, 17, were seriously burned in an experiment involving the trajectory of flying objects, utilizing two “cannons” made out of apple juice cans firing tennis balls. One of the cannons, which used wood alcohol as a propellant, exploded in their faces.

The teacher who supervised the experiment, Thomas Magee, has been unavailable for comment since the accident.

Last week two groups of Santa Clarita teachers and parents delivered full course turkey dinners to the boys’ families as they held a vigil at Sherman Oaks Hospital, where scores of schoolmates and other acquaintances, including Magee, have stopped by to offer moral support.

On Thursday, students 17 years and older and weighing more than 109 pounds, and with parental consent, filed into the school auditorium, where they sat on bleachers and waited to give blood.

Even Carrie Coram, who stands 5-foot-1 and weighs 113 pounds, gave, but only a half-pint.

“My vein is so small it started to collapse,” she said, and that half-pint didn’t come without a fight. “They beat my arm to death trying to get at the vein.”

She and her girlfriend, Marcie Hollis, 18, were so squeamish about needles that they held hands as they waited and even when their blood flowed down a plastic tube and into a storage sack. Despite their fears, neither hesitated when the blood drive was announced.

“There wasn’t really any doubt in my mind that I would do it,” Carrie said. “It’s scary and it hurts, but I figured if it was me, I’d want them to give me blood.”

Carrie said she knew Nolan, who suffered serious burns on 12% of his body, and visited the boys Wednesday. Christopher, recovering from skin-graft surgery on Monday, was asleep and doctors have isolated him from all visitors except family members to guard against infection.

Larry Weinberg, spokesman for Sherman Oaks Hospital, said Christopher has entered a critical stage in which he is susceptible to fatal infection.

“Despite the long way he’s come, Chris is still in a life-threatening state,” Weinberg said. “His respiratory system is weakened and . . . the threat of infection gets bigger every day.”

And Thursday’s operation--in which dead flesh was scraped from Christopher’s vocal cords, burned by inhaling the cloud of flaming alcohol--may put his ability to speak at risk.

“It’s not possible to know the long-term effects on his vocal cords,” Weinberg said. Privately, doctors say they are optimistic, a hospital source said. But the source added that even if he retains the ability to speak, his voice may be permanently hoarse.

If the youth overcomes his present challenges, he faces a daunting schedule of painful skin grafts as doctors replace damaged tissue with skin cut away from other parts of his body.