David Wayne Plunkett – DEC Alumni
On April 3, 2015, at his home in Rock Hill, SC, David Wayne Plunkett was gravely injured when a propane gas container exploded. Chelsea, his wife and the mother of their 14-month old daughter, Catherine, had been in the kitchen when David had gone outside, saying he was about to mow the lawn. She was feeding Catherine when “there was a big, white flash and then, huge ‘BOOM!!’, and the den windows blew in.” Chelsea ran outside as David Wayne staggered toward her, and said “My arms. My arms.” and then he collapsed. Neighbors rushed over and were able to apply tourniquets to his arms, which were disastrously damaged. Within a relatively few minutes he was heli evac-ed to the Carolina Medical Center in Charlotte, NC, twenty miles away, and to the ER/Trauma facility there.
Devastatingly, David Wayne lost his right arm, which was severed six inches above the elbow from the explosion. His left arm was not destroyed but shattered, and doctors are operating again, today, trying to save it. His eyesight is hoped to be saved, and an MRI showed no life-threatening internal damage. His condition has been stabilized.
David is one of our own, he is a 2003 Savini graduate, who made his living as a sculptor and makeup artist in North Carolina. David worked on the Cinemax series, Banshee, which you may recall has just recently moved filming to Pittsburgh. David Wayne is a well-respected and phenomenally creative make-up artist and sculptor in film production, and great-nephew of the famous Costume Designer for Gone With the Wind and many other films, Walter Plunkett. Because of his own work in feature films, David Wayne is an active member in good standing of IATSE Local 798 representing Make Up Artists and Hair Stylists and word is going out nationally to his union Brothers and Sisters.
David has a wife and a beautiful 14-month old daughter. As you can imagine, the costs of his care will be exorbitant. His family has started a Go Fund Me account, Jeff Imbrescia, our president has already made a generous donation from his personal account and we are in the works of creating a student and staff driven raffle where all proceeds will also go to David’s fund. Again, David is one of our own, he’s done remarkably well with his education and has made all of us at Douglas Education Center proud. Please find it in your heart to dig deep and donate to this worthy cause. We want David to know that he still has a family at DEC who supports and cares about him.
You can learn more about the accident here:
http://www.heraldonline.com/
http://www.wcnc.com/story/
Donations can be made here:
http://www.gofundme.com/qweevw
