27-05-2025
Freak Accident Burned 50% of High School Senior's Body. It Didn't Stop Him from Starring in 'Footloose' (Exclusive)
Rising Virginia high school senior James Culatta was on a summer hike when the ground gave way beneath him and he fell into a near-boiling hot spring
He was horribly injured and spent months in the hospital but eventually recovered enough to star in his school's spring musical
"I felt so grateful for these people that believed in my kid," his mom saysLast June, James Culatta was hiking with his family in Orem, Utah, during a college visit when he stepped on a rock and the ground opened up beneath him — sending him tumbling into a underground hot spring of scalding water and mud.
'I was terrified,' the 18-year-old from Herndon, Va., says now. 'I had never experienced that much pain in my life. I didn't know you could feel that much pain.'
The spring that James fell into was more than 200 degrees, close to the boiling point. He tried to swim out but the ground was too unstable.
Eventually, though horribly injured — the skin had melted off of both of his hands and he had suffered burns on about half his body — he pulled himself to safety.
'There was blood everywhere,' he says.
James drank two gallons of water while he waited for a LifeFlight helicopter to take him to the University of Utah Health's Burn Center in Salt Lake City.
What had started out as a summer trip for a family reunion, with a detour to see a prospective college, was suddenly something much more dire.
'We thought there was a good chance he was never going to walk again,' says James' dad, Richard Culatta, 46.
The recovery, James says, was 'more painful' than his accident.
Doctors had to remove the burned skin from the bottom half of his body, then they had to strip the skin that had not been burned — from his belly button to his neck — and stretch it to make grafts for to help replace what had been lost. (He looked, his dad says, like a mummy in a museum.)
'[It] was so stressful and so painful, and I really couldn't have done it without my family. They've helped me so much,' says James, the second oldest of four children. 'They were by my side the whole time.'
The teen spent two months in the hospital in Salt Lake. He was still an inpatient when his school, Herndon High, announced they were staging a musical production of Footloose for the spring.
The news caught his family's attention. James says he's always felt a connection to the original movie, and he loves singing and dancing. He was in his school's production of Fiddler on the Roof last year.
'We looked at each other and said, 'Oh my gosh,' wouldn't that be amazing [for him to be in it],' recalls James' mom, Shaundra Culatta, a 42-year-old professional violinist.
'But,' she says, 'it felt so far out of reach. He couldn't even stand at that point — it felt like an impossible goal.'
And then, with time, it wasn't so impossible after all.
Earlier this month, after six months of grueling rehab and seven surgeries, he starred as Ren McCormick, the character Kevin Bacon originated in the 1984 movie.
'To see him dancing up on stage is just amazing,' says Richard, who runs the nonprofit Innovative Learning.
'I was like, 'Are you able to do this?' You should see his knees. If I showed you a picture of what his knees look like, they look like they've been through a garbage disposal. It's just totally shredded,' Richard says of James. 'He's like, "No, we made it work.' '
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The teen had to miss the first semester of his senior year because he was in the hospital and, when he returned home, he needed four hours of physical therapy at a MedStar in Washington, D.C., with a commute that took about 90 minutes each way.
The possibility of Footloose hung out in the future. Friends encouraged him to audition for Ren and while he says he 'never really thought I would actually get the role … I'm so glad that I did, because I made so many friends and I strengthened relationships.'
'It gives me hope going forward,' he says.
His parents say they are very grateful that the director took a risk in casting James — at the time he auditioned, he was walking 'like a penguin,' Richard says.
'His overall health was in the balance from the very beginning, he was still sick all the time,' Shaundra says. 'I felt so grateful for these people that believed in my kid.'
The choreography and costuming were adjusted for James. For example, in a gym class scene, he wore long pants (with medical-grade compression garments underneath) when the rest of the actors rocked shorts.
Nonetheless, he danced, shuffled and slid on his knees as the part required.
'It was an incredible miracle,' Shaunda says. 'It's just such a testament of the power of family and community and prayer and faith. It was truly horrific what he went through. But it is kind of this wonderful comeback story because this musical is all about dancing."
James has a 'really, really long road' ahead, according to his mom. He has several more surgeries planned to improve his mobility. 'But he's a really, really tough kid."
His care team sat with his parents in the second row for his final performance on May 4. 'There were lots of tears,' Richard says.
This summer, James plans to return to Utah and be a counselor at a summer camp for kids who are burn survivors, alongside the doctors and medical team he got to know from the University of Utah Health.
'They've become my family,' he says. 'I love them so much.'
And in the fall, having now caught up on the schoolwork he missed, he plans to attend Utah Valley University, where he had been planning to visit before his injuries. He's considering becoming a physical therapist and working with other burn victims.
'You can do anything if you believe in yourself,' he says. 'And with the power of friendship and family, anything's really possible.'
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