Benefit concert held for Wal-Mart burn victim

Robert Eury loved playing the guitar. An avid fan of the band Lynyrd Skynyrd, he would pluck out favorite tunes on his guitar, until eventually he became skilled enough to compose his own music and lyrics. \nThat was before this summer, when Eury, 29, of Bloomington, was critically injured in an electrical blast during the construction of the recently opened Wal-Mart Supercenter. Up to 12,000 volts of electricity created an arc that lit him and two of his co-workers on fire Aug. 26. Eury was lucky. He was able to escape the electrified room by crawling outside the back of the building to fellow workers, who stomped the flames out on his body.\nWhile Eury remains in serious condition at the Wishard Memorial Hospital burn unit in Indianapolis, struggling to learn how to raise his arms again, the Bloomington community has rallied around him. Tonight, his friends are holding a benefit concert at Rhino's All-Ages Music Club to help Eury's family cover his enormous medical costs.\n"Robert is one of the hardest-working people I've ever known," said his roommate Trevor Charles, 28, who has been spearheading the event through word-of-mouth and MySpace.com. "It's gotta be pretty tough (for his family)."\nLocal artists Metal in the Microwave, T.V. Mike and the Scarecrows, and the Bloomington street performer Big John are slated to play at the event, which will feature some of Eury's favorite classic rock and \nfolk-country music, with covers of songs by Johnny Cash, Black Sabbath, and, of course, Lynyrd Skynyrd. \nMike Klinge, of the band T.V. Mike and the Scarecrows, said his group will be playing some new songs that haven't even been recorded yet, and expects the evening to be a nice long jam session.\nKlinge, who describes his music as "foot-stomping" folk, said he wanted to help out Eury in some way after hearing about the accident this summer.\n"I thought I could volunteer my services as a musician and play," he said, adding that he thought "it was just kind of shocking that (Wal-Mart) didn't jump in and do something."\nJoy Thomas, 36, of Bloomington, who has been visiting Eury three times a week since the accident, said Eury is making good progress, impressing even the doctors with his recovery. \n"He still has a long way to go, but he's doing really well," she said. "Thank God."\nEury, who received second and third degree burns to 85 percent of his body, received his last major skin graft Nov. 8. After a waiting period to ensure the skin grafting is successful, Eury will be moved to a physical therapy unit in the hospital to slowly work on rebuilding the muscles and flexibility in his body. \n"He's trying really hard," Bob Johnson said, 46 of Bloomington. He said that last week when he visited, Eury "was actually talking to me and answering questions."\nOne of Eury's injured co-workers, Scott Shelton, 35, of Anderson, did not survive the accident. He died last month at the burn center after his heart and kidneys failed. Electrician Stephen Abbott, 27, of Otterbein, Ind., remains in serious condition at Wishard with Eury.\nThomas and Johnson said that while Eury was doing well, the strain put on his family, North Carolina residents, was enormous. \n"It costs a lot of money for them to come here and stay in a motel," Thomas said, explaining how the family, which owns a business in Salisbury, N.C., has been able to afford to pay the bills and visit their son once a month through local donations and the "small percentage" Eury gets through worker's compensation. \n"They are doing the best they can," she said, "but since it's been a while now since the accident, donations have totally stopped"