LAKELAND The shocks of a painful year seemed to be easing for the Hancock family in October when Carter Hancock left a hospital burn unit and returned to his Lakeland home.
In February, the grandfather Carter loved and admired had died after a fall. Five months later, Carter, 20, suffered severe burns over much of his body during a baffling accident at the family s home.
Doctors initially told his parents, Marcus and Wendy Hancock, that Carter might not survive. If he did, they said, he would probably remain in the hospital beyond the end of the year.
But Carter defied those predictions, recovering quickly enough to come home after 71 days.