Michael Van Every goes from burn victim to benefactor
When people meet Michael Van Every, his boisterous, outgoing personality is hard to miss. But sooner or later, they'll notice his facial scarring or the misshapen fingers on his right hand.
“Over the years, I've had a lot of questions posed to me,” said Van Every, 53, president and managing partner of Republic Urban Properties. “People ask me if I was in an accident. Some people assume I'm a veteran and maybe was caught in an explosion.”
His real story is more tragic and much more common. When he was 2½ years old, Van Every suffered extensive burns from a fire in his grandparents' garage in Willow Glen. He spent three months in the hospital, and over the next several years underwent dozens of corrective surgeries and skin grafts.
Now, Van Every wants to give back to the institution he believes saved his life, the Burn Center at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. He is establishing a fund with the Valley Medical Center Foundation — seeded with a sizable donation by Michael and his wife, Jennifer Van Ever. The fund would be the beneficiary of a fundraising event later this year that they hope becomes an annual tradition.
“I'm very proud of that hospital, just as a resident,” Michael Van Every said. “Why wouldn't I want to be part of this and raise more awareness not just about my story but the millions of other people who have suffered burns. I know that burn victims suffer inside and long for things that never can change. It's not just the physical but the mental anguish that goes with it.”
VMC'S Regional Burn Center is the only one in the Bay Area verified by the American Burn Association and American College of Surgeons for its quality of care, and is just one of three
regional burn centers between Los Angeles and the Oregon border. In 2022, 227 patients were admitted to the burn ICU, and an additional 300 patients received care from burn center staff in the emergency room and pediatrics. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 435 kids are treated in emergency rooms every day for burn-related injuries, and 232 children died from burns in 2020.
VMC Foundation Executive Director Michael Elliott said he and Van Every began talking about the establishment of the fund over a year ago, and Van Every credits PRX Digital founder Brenna Bolger for bringing them together. Their collective hope is that the initiative can focus funding in three areas: services for burn patients, innovation in medical care and providing mental health and wellness support for doctors, nurses and staff who work in the unit.
“These are dollars we can use to fill urgent needs,” Elliott said. “Public dollars only go so far, and sometimes that makes it hard to innovate. What's really exciting is this will be a pool of funds that will allow us to do
that.”
Van Every's gesture of generosity has its start on Aug. 23, 1971, the day of his accident.
While the family was visiting his paternal grandparents at their home on Fuschia Drive in Willow Glen, Michael wandered into the garage right off the kitchen. No one witnessed his accident, but Van Every's parents pieced together what they think happened: A boy in the neighborhood who had mowed the lawn had left a gas can on the garage floor, possibly with the lid off. Michael, who had helped his dad mop the floor at their home earlier that morning, tried to mop the garage floor with the gasoline.
The Uniform Plumbing Code didn't require gas water heaters to be installed with a clearance of 18 inches above the ground until 1976. So the house's water heater was on the ground, and the pilot light was right in the path of the gas Michael was mopping toward it.
The ensuing explosion blew Michael beneath a table, the right side of his body on fire. “The only thing I remember is getting out from underneath this table and literally dancing in the fire,” he said. “I do recall
that vividly. Dancing in the fire.”
When his parents found him, they rolled him on the grass and wrapped him in a blanket to smother the flames and put him in the bathtub. San Jose police were the first to respond, and the officer — to this day, the Van Every family wishes they knew his name — saw the severity of the burns and insisted on taking Michael to the hospital immediately without waiting for an ambulance.
“I said we'll go to San Jose Hospital, and he said, `No, no, no, you're going to Valley Medical, to the burn unit,'” his mother, Joann Van Every, recalled. She had no idea the burn unit existed; it had opened only the year before.
George Van Every remembers a doctor who saw them as they went through the emergency department. “He told me, `You realize a young boy that burned, he won't last 24 hours.' I'll never forget that.”
They brought him home in mid-november that year. He suffered burns to about 60% of his body, including his legs, feet, right arm and hand and part of his face. “I was doing corrective surgery from the time I was 2½ until I was 13,” Van Every said.
And while he sees himself as a positive person now, Van Every
said he was bullied mercilessly in elementary school and still stings from a memory of Valentine's Day in fifth grade when he received no cards from any of his classmates. But he flourished at Gunderson High School, playing sports and dating like everyone else, and gained more confidence working the check stand at P&W Market, the grocery chain started by his mom's family.
“I realized I could be a normal kid and not just be the
`burn kid,' ” Van Every said.
Elliott said he believes Van Every's decision to not only help the Burn Center but to share his own story will be beneficial for other burn victims.
“He went through something very traumatic, and I think it speaks to the type of person he is,” Elliott said. “They call them burn survivors for a reason, because it's a physical and emotional injury that you have forever. Building supports around patients, especially young patients who will go through a very difficult childhood because they wear those injuries is as important as the medical care that's provided.”