After Losing His Fingers in a Fire, One Boy Faced the Impossible—with a Piano
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 1 April 2026
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, when John O’Leary was nine years old, a house fire left him with burns over 100 percent of his body. Doctors said he wouldn’t survive. He did. They said he’d never walk again. He did.
When he returned home, his mother insisted he do one more thing no one thought possible: learn to play the piano. John had no fingers, but she believed he had more strength than anyone could see.
The bestselling author of On Fire shares how one act of motherly determination helped him face the world again and taught him that no obstacle is bigger than love, hope, and the will to try.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.5 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:16.4 | This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star |
| 0:22.2 | and the American people. Up next, a story from John O'Leary, John's the author of the best-selling |
| 0:28.7 | book On Fire, which recounts his harrowing near-death experience of being burnt on 100% of his body |
| 0:36.0 | when he was just nine years old. |
| 0:38.6 | Today, John recounts his homecoming from his long stay in the hospital, |
| 0:42.9 | a homecoming that many expected never to happen. |
| 0:46.6 | Let's get into the story. Take it away, John. |
| 0:49.7 | Coming home from my hospital, we loaded into our mercury station wagon, wood on the side, purple and color, |
| 0:57.3 | beautiful car, mid-80s vintage, loaded in, the dog was with us, man, and I thought that was the party. |
| 1:03.2 | That's what we had planned. And then I always remember sweeping around our little turn right before |
| 1:08.7 | we enter into our subdivision. And in the distance, |
| 1:11.5 | I saw a firefighters ladder up. Near that, another firefighters ladder up, between the two of them |
| 1:17.0 | an American flag hanging over the street. There was a marching band there. It seemed like the entire |
| 1:23.5 | community had come out for this thing, not just neighbors and firefighters, a few nurses. |
| 1:28.3 | It was this incredible celebration. Eventually, the party dies down and now our family gets to |
| 1:34.8 | begin life together. This is the moment that we planned the homecoming to be about the dinner. |
| 1:39.7 | My mom made my favorite meal, which at that time, if you can imagine, was all rotten potatoes. |
| 1:45.6 | My whole time in a hospital, man, I just dreamed of all grot and potatoes made by my mother. |
| 1:50.8 | So she made those and made chicken, made a little salad and French bread. |
| 1:54.7 | It's all on the table. |
... |
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