'Going To Be A Long Road:' Tulsa Mom Hopes For Miracle After Son Hospitalized With Major Burns

The mother of a Tulsa man is hoping for a miracle after her son was in a fire and received third-degree burns all over his body.

Popeye Nolan is now fighting for his life in the hospital and looking at more than a dozen surgeries.

Juanita Nolan, Popeye's mother, says a doctor initially told her to prepare for the worst but she says as long as her son is still fighting, she will fight with him.

She has spent the last three weeks talking with doctors.

"(The doctor) said that he's getting through pneumonia... honestly I thought that was going to take him, but he's coming through it," Juanita said.

Juanita said she's been by her son's hospital bed as he's gone through surgeries, infections, Sepsis, and organ failure.

"It's terrible, it's horrible, it's just it's going to be so rough on him, like, it's hard, it's very, very hard,” she said.

Juanita says her son Popeye was helping his grandmother clean out this shed when all of a sudden it caught on fire. He was left with third-degree burns on 70% of his body.

"But he's fighting he's hanging in there, he's just it's, it's going to be a long road," Juanita said.

Doctors told Juanita her son doesn't have much skin left to graft, and because it's extremely painful to clean off the dead, burnt skin, they have to clean it in sections, and Popeye has to go under anesthesia every time.

"They have to get cadaver skin and put over the burns but they have to do it in sections because he'll get too cold and his heart will get stressed out so they can't do his entire body at once,” Juanita said.

Juanita says her son is a fighter, and with the support her family has received, she believes he will recover.

"I mean if you know this kid, if anybody's going to make it, it's going to be him," she said.

News On 6 called the Creek County Fire Marshal and the state fire marshal to find out what started the fire, but haven't heard back yet.

You can help Popeye on his road to recovery HERE.