LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – A former UNLV staff member and survivor of the Dec. 6 shooting is currently in intensive care after suffering burns over most of his body. His family says he would not have survived if his neighbor had not intervened.

Ailisha Vaughn left UNLV following the mass shooting that killed three faculty members just over a year ago. He is now at Sunrise Hospital, just a few miles from school, recovering from another life-altering trauma.

“Ailisha is a warrior and she is a warrior,” her sister Aileen Cunningham shared. Vaughn was cooking in his Henderson apartment in Green Valley when an out-of-control grease fire ignited the entire kitchen.

“He was engulfed in flames from the top of his head to below his knees,” Cunningham said. Cunningham was on the phone with his sister when the incident occurred.

“’Aileen, I’m on fire!’ I really can’t tell you how traumatic it was to hear him say. and I can’t help him,” Cunningham recounted. A neighbor ran to his rescue, possibly saving his life.

“I want to thank her… I consider her an angel,” Cunningham said.

Cunningham and her other sister flew to Vaughn the next morning. The sisters are triplets. They’ve been at his bedside ever since and said they hadn’t had a chance to meet his neighbor, but they hoped to meet him soon and would thank him personally for saving his life.

Vaughn is also a bone cancer survivor. He was in a medically induced coma for days after the fire, but is now awake and even talking.

His road to recovery will be long. His family opened a fundraising account. You can find more information here: GoFundMe for Ailisha

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