SURVIVAL SHAME: Burned over 39%, Pierre thought his story was remarkable—until he met 80% burn survivors

For years, engineer, author, speaker and certified professional coach Pierre Kuma believed surviving burns over 39% of his body was one of the defining stories of his life. But a virtual meeting with fellow burn survivors from around the world changed his perspective, replacing pride in survival with profound humility.

Speaking to broadcaster Kafui Dey, Mr. Kuma recounted how his own story suddenly felt much smaller when he joined an online conference for burn survivors.

“I have 39% of my total body surface area burned,” he said. “That’s a lot of body burn.”

Yet as participants introduced themselves, Mr. Kuma listened in disbelief.

“One person said, ‘I had 80% of my body burned.’ Another said 90%. I’m sitting there thinking, ‘My 39%… you need to catch up,’” he recalled with a laugh.

The moment left him almost embarrassed to tell his own story.

“At some point I was thinking, ‘Should I really be sitting here?’ I even had to find a way to weave my story into the conversation because everybody else’s numbers were just crazy.”

But it wasn’t the percentages that stayed with him. It was the resilience behind them.

One survivor, in particular, transformed the way Mr. Kuma viewed suffering and recovery. She had sustained at least 80% burns while pregnant in the 1980s, a time when burn care was far less advanced than it is today.

“She was pregnant. The burns themselves are enough, but pregnancy already takes a toll on a woman,” Mr. Kuma said.

Against overwhelming odds, she survived. She delivered her baby safely. Years later, she married and went on to have two more children.

“I was inspired,” Mr.Kuma admitted. “Here I was thinking about my 39%, and then you meet someone who went through that and still built a family.”

The experience reinforced the reason Mr. Kuma now interviews other survivors and shares stories of people who have endured unimaginable hardship.

“It’s all about telling the story,” he explained. “People need inspiration, not just something to get them excited, but something that reminds them there’s hope.”

He believes everyone eventually encounters life’s valleys. For some, it is losing a job that supports an extended family. For others, it is divorce after decades of marriage, the death of a loved one, or the collapse of a successful business.

“Everybody goes through low moments. Everybody goes through pitfalls in life,” he said. “Life always has valleys.”

Those difficult moments, he noted, can leave people feeling hopeless, sometimes even pushing them toward depression or suicide.

“The reason why I have these conversations is for people to know that if these people have gone through what they went through, and God was able to bring them out, then there is hope that we can also come out.”

Ironically, Mr. Kuma says the accident that nearly claimed his life also accelerated the purpose he had been postponing.

Before the burns, he had occasionally thought about becoming a coach, but it was an idea he imagined pursuing “10 or 15 years” later.

“The accident brought things faster,” he said. “It brought a bit of urgency.”

Today, that urgency has become his life’s mission, not simply to tell his own survival story, but to amplify the stories of others whose courage reminds even fellow survivors that healing is never measured by percentages, but by the strength to keep living.