After his near-fatal accident, John O’Leary qualified to spend his life playing the victim.

While experimenting with matches and gasoline in his St. Louis family garage, an accidental explosion left then-9-year-old O’Leary with burns covering 100% of his body — 85% of which were third-degree burns.

Doctors gave O’Leary a 1% chance of survival. His fingers, which suffered the most severe burns, required amputation. Following a five-month hospital stay, bolstered by family, nurses, prayers and a local baseball announcer, O’Leary was released to go home.

In the decade after his accident, O’Leary learned to adapt to life with a disability. As a college student, he thrived at his fraternity house, but O’Leary still lacked the confidence to ask out the girl he liked and kept his burn scars co

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