Local rapper, TR3W3Y, experiences two life-changing moments in matter of days
Local rapper, TR3W3Y, hopes to bring his musical talents to new heights since signing a record deal earlier this year.
Life can change in the blink of an eye. For Tremain Minty-Dodd, a local rapper with the stage name TR3W3Y, life changed twice in a few days. The first at the promise of a record deal. The second, in the explosive blaze of a fire.
“All of a sudden, I heard a bang, and I couldn’t see anything,” says Minty-Dodd, recalling what led him to be treated at HSC Winnipeg on June 4, 2022.
Minty-Dodd had just returned to Winnipeg after a trip to Atlanta, to see friend and ex-Winnipeg Blue Bomber, Maurice Leggett—who is the CEO and Founder of the Almighty Allstars Entertainment record label in Atlanta, the label that signed a record deal with Minty-Dodd.
Excited to share the news when he got home, Minty-Dodd got together with his friends for a bonfire.
Neither he nor his friends had started a fire before. They tried several times but couldn’t get the flames to catch. They decided to pour gasoline on the fire, something Minty-Dodd realizes was terribly unsafe.
Upon pouring gas on the fire, Minty-Dodd heard a loud bang and was temporarily blinded.
“It sounded like a gunshot went off beside my head, and then I felt hot. I realized I was on fire…so I stopped, dropped, and rolled—and kept rolling until the fire went out.”
Minty-Dodd felt warm, but otherwise fine. It wasn’t until he saw his hands, “bleeding more than he had ever seen someone bleed,” that Minty-Dodd realized the severity of the situation.
His friends called 911 and covered Minty-Dodd in wet towels before he was lifted into an ambulance.
Minty-Dodd woke up in the Intensive Care Unit at HSC, where he stayed for three days before moving to the GH-5 Surgery Unit which would become his home for nearly four weeks.
Minty-Dodd doesn’t remember anything from the time he was lifted into the ambulance until he woke up in HSC’s Intensive Care Unit.
Minty-Dodd was told that 35 per cent of his body had varying levels of first-, second-, and third-degree burns, and both of his hands required immediate skin grafts.
Thanks to HSC and the skills of renowned trauma and burn surgeon, Dr. Sarvesh Logsetty, and Ben, Minty-Dodd’s occupational therapist, who he still sees once a month to prevent a c-chord (a condition where the spine can’t properly transmit messages to the brain, causing weakness in the arms and hands), Minty-Dodd has been able to return to normal.
“My full strength and energy aren’t there yet, but they’re better,” says Minty-Dodd six months after his discharge from HSC.
Through it all, Minty-Dodd turned more and more towards God because of the difficulties he was experiencing.
Minty-Dodd wrote a song about his four-week stay at HSC Winnipeg.
“I started going back to church before the accident but being in the hospital helped me find a stronger connection to God,” says Minty-Dodd.
The accident and strengthening his spiritual connection have also led Minty-Dodd to changing his genre of music. Before the accident, Minty-Dodd claims his music was “more like everyone else’s,” and didn’t stand out. Now, he is working in a genre called Gospel Rap.
“It’s not the most popular, but there are a few people who have been pretty successful with this genre, so it’s opening up a lane for me and bringing more attention to this style of music,” says Minty-Dodd, who is hopeful for where his record deal will take him.
To help him on his healing journey, and to show his gratitude, Tremain “TR3W3Y” Minty-Dodd produced a song about his time at HSC Winnipeg, which you can listen to here.
To show your gratitude and to help burn victims like Minty-Dodd, please consider a gift to the HSCF Fire Fighters’ Burn Fund Endowment. To donate, please click here and select The Fire Fighters’ Burn Fund from the designation list or call 204-515-5612 or 1-800-679-8493 (toll-free).
By Andrew Lysack
