‘It’s looking good for Mya’: Spokane Valley RV explosion survivor making promising strides

At around 11 p.m. on July 16 in Portland , Verlie Michelle Nelson received a call from the hospital that said she should come say her final goodbyes to her little brother.

Her brother, Mya Nelson, 49, was left with severe burns to over 70% of his body following a fire in his Spokane Valley. He was rushed to Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center before being intubated and flown to Harborview Medical Burn Center in Seattle.

Verlie Nelson, 51, knew that she wouldn’t make it to Spokane before her brother was sent to Seattle, so she threw her things in a bag and traveled to Seattle with her other brother from the area.

“We knew if we could make it to Seattle, we had a shot at what we thought was our goodbye. And so we just left,” Verlie Nelson said. “I went the speed limit and put it on cruise control and was just like, ‘OK, here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna just get there, and we’re gonna give him our love and energy and support, and that’s what we did.’ And he came through.”

Mya Nelson underwent surgery for three hours the night after the fire due to a concern for debris in his lungs, said his wife, Nancy Nelson. Nancy, 41, said Mya’s condition has improved. She said medical staff removed some of his bandages and staples Tuesday, he can breathe and speak on his own, and he is beginning physical therapy. As of Thursday, Mya Nelson remained in the Harborview ICU Burn Unit.

The fire, which left Mya Nelson’s RV destroyed and a neighboring home uninhabitable, caused $23,000 in damages, according to Spokane Valley Fire Department spokesperson Patrick Erickson. The cause was still under investigation last week.

Mya said that he has few memories of the day leading up to the fire, which occurred at around 9 p.m. on July 16.

“I remember it was early in the morning, I made my coffee-whey protein shake and I was watching TV. And the next thing I know – the next thing I remember, I should say – is I’m on the ground in the front yard, somebody saying, ‘Stay with me,’ and then I’m in Seattle,” Mya said in phone interview from his hospital bed. “I have no idea what happened. I was watching ‘Lost,’ I remember that.”

Nancy had been staying in a house about 15 minutes away at the time of the fire, and first heard about Mya Nelson’s condition through her sister-in-law.

“At first I didn’t think it was real; it just sounded so surreal, and I asked her if she was pulling my leg – is this a joke? She said no,” Nancy Nelson said. “So I rushed to the hospital.”

Mya Nelson said that due to the severity of his injuries and all the variables associated with the healing process, there is not a recovery timeline. He believes the current plan is for him to be discharged from the hospital in three to four weeks. He said that his doctors and nurses told him that he has been recovering at a “rapid speed.”

“On the mental side, I’m bummed. I mean, three of my cats are dead, my RV is gone, so on and so forth,” Mya Nelson said. “But at the same time, God was looking out for me. I mean, there’s no if, ands or buts about it. I shouldn’t be here, and my whole family has just flocked to me to help me out. It’s amazing.”

Mya Nelson said that one of his brothers from Portland is renting an apartment in Spokane Valley to help support him after his eventual discharge.

“It’s even got two bedrooms because I am disabled,” he said. “I have severe rheumatoid arthritis on top of everything else. And so it’s just been amazing, the help that I’m getting. I mean, it warms my heart.”

Mya Nelson’s family is grateful for his level of recovery since the incident. His sister, Verlie Nelson, said she’s grateful that doctors were able to save his fingers, toes, ears and nose.

“We are so fortunate that once the incubator came out, he’s been able to talk,” she said. “Every day he’s been getting a little stronger, and we may still have to do the bandage changes and things like this, but the advancements in what they’re able to do is huge. He’s working and doing everything he can to get healed and through this. And he’s talking about ‘after this’ scenarios with hope.”

Before 2019, Mya Nelson worked as a mechanic, but he took a step back after experiencing a series of hernias in addition to the increasing severity of his rheumatoid arthritis.

“My lower back has been herniated so many times that it’ll go out and it starts to pinch the nerves in the legs now. And literally, I would lose the use of a leg and I’d drop,” he said. “And my wife told me that it was time to stop working, so I started taking care of the house as best as I could.”

Nancy and Verlie Nelson both describe Mya as an animal lover who has always cared for his pets.

“Mya has always been very kindhearted. We, over the years, adopted six cats, and we fed, like, 10 to 15 outdoor cats,” Nancy Nelson said. “We spend most of our monthly money on feeding the animals.”

Nancy Nelson said that three of their pet cats were killed in the fire, and two were rescued by Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Services. She said that she found the sixth cat, which survived, when she returned to the site of the fire. Verlie Nelson said her brother has been adopting and saving animals his entire life.

“When he heard that a few of (his cats) lived, he actually – it’s one of the first times he’s smiled,” Verlie Nelson said. “His eyes were still swollen shut and he was still intubated and everything, but when he heard, he smiled.”

Mya and Nancy Nelson have been separated for a couple of months and are in the process of getting a divorce. Despite this, Nancy said that she and her husband remain good friends and that she is the lone financial supporter for the two of them via her job as a chef.

Due to their ongoing divorce, Nancy said that they did not have insurance on the RV. She said that she has been concerned about the costs for rubble removal and medical care for her husband and their surviving cats.

Mya Nelson said that he is working with a disability lawyer and has received Medicaid, which he hopes will ease some of the financial burden.

Verlie Nelson said that their family hasn’t seen the medical bills.

Nancy Nelson has started a GoFundMe to raise money to help cover some of the costs following the fire.

“The treatment team is really happy with his progress,” she said. “It’s looking good for Mya.”

Mya Nelson also remains optimistic.

“Being negative does nothing but hurt the person that’s being negative,” he said. “So you gotta look at things the best way that you can.”