SPOKANE -- David Van Scyoc was never supposed to make it to his third birthday. A gas explosion left him with severe burns all over his body when he was just two-years-old, but that was just the beginning of his struggles.

If you need to take a second look, David will understand. He's used to people staring at him due to scars all over his body left from severe burns, but it never gets any easier.

"I'm always stared at," said David. "I've had situations where parents will see me and then they'll leave and go get their kid and bring their kid back so they can show me to their kid."

David says he's been called names, people confront him simply because of the way he looks. He knows most people have never seen anyone with such severe burns, most severe burn victims don't survive and if they do they don't want to be in public. But not David, he walks across the street with the confidence of man with a black belt in Taekwondo.

"I figure, if people can't accept me for who I am than that's their problem," David said.

It's that spirit and drive that has kept David alive, when most thought he would die.

April 3rd 1972 is a day David's mom, Agnes Holland will never forget. It's the day her innocent, hazel-eyed toddler began the fight of his life.

"David was outside playing with a girl next door and he went into to get his tricycle," Holland said.

As David walked into the garage, the pilot light under the hot water tank ignited a nearby gas can. The explosion was so fierce and so hot, it nearly melted the skin off parts of David's body.

"It was horrible because all the skin on his hand came off just like a glove," said Holland.

David was rushed to the University of Southern California Medical Center with third degree burns to 85 percent of his body.

"We waited in the hallway and the doctors came out and said that they didn't give David an hour to live," Holland recalled.

Hours faded into days and days became months, but David was still alive. He spent the next year in the hospital undergoing surgery after surgery.

In 1973, burn care was a novelty. Doctors experimented using pig and cadaver skin. David's care was so unique, a reporter from the Los Angeles Times wrote an article about a new skin grafting technique doctor's used on him.

"I went to school in the hospital, I spent many birthdays, Christmas, Easter, you name it - I spent some of my time there," David said.

It's at the hospital where David met stars like Robin Williams and the cast of Happy Days, meet and greets that kept his spirits up. Through it all, his mom never left his side.

"There was a lot of crying and a lot of praying," Holland said. "I made him his own quilts, he had everything... even the doctor's went to him for candy and food."

David finally left the hospital for rehab 18 months after the accident. On that day his doctor wrote, "Through the superb skills of the USC Medical Center and several minor miracles, David has survived these injuries.. which probably represents something of a world's record."

By the time David turned 18, he'd been through more than a hundred operations.

"They tried to rebuild my ears at one time, but that surgery didn't go too well," David said. "They forgot to tell me not to lay on my side after the surgeries, so I kinda messed it up."

The burns never kept David from just being a kid. He was active in swimming, being an alter boy, fishing, and making it into the mentally gifted program at school. He has two black belts as well.

Over the next 10 years the burns continued to ravage David's body, but this time the problem was in his brain.

"I was diagnosed with brain cancer back in July of 2001," he said.

Once again, David went back into the operating room. It took five surgeons 17-and-a-half hours to remove the tumor. Doctors were forced to cut the back of skull off to get to the cancer, covering it back up with a muscle from his back and an artery from his neck. Just like before, David survived.

"He's a strong person," said Holland.

Through it all, David continued to care for his family, friends, and his daughter - who now lives with her mother on the west side of the state. David began running summer camps for children with burns, inspiring them to keep fighting too. His selflessness still baffles his mother today.

"I just don't know why," said Holland. "There is a kid that does everything that he can for everybody else, he doesn't stop until he makes things right for somebody."

His mother's words stand as a testament to David, who never quit despite being in constant, excruciating pain.

"From like a one to a ten, I'm probably about a six," said David. "I have days where I'm a 27."

David constantly pops morphine pills and smokes marijuana to manage the pain, but it never goes away. On Saturday mornings, David attends Spokcannabis meetings in the basement of a local church. He goes for the support because his fight isn't over.

"He's suffered so much," said Holland as she held back tears.

David says the pain is so fierce at times that he fears the tumor has returned. Due to his suspicions, David recently scheduled a meeting with a surgeon at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

"I'm just thinking about my family, thinking about lots of things," he said.

David left the meeting with few answers. He's now waiting for doctor's to examine his latest MRI and CAT scans. Even if the cancer hasn't come back, he'll need another brain surgery to repair his fragile skull.

"Why did it have to be me? Why this now?" asked David. "Haven't I suffered enough?"

David says he's worried, not for himself, but for his family and his daughter he hasn't seen in years. It's tough, but staying positive is his only option.

"What am I going to do, just quit? Just give up? I mean you don't have a choice," he said.

David admits he doesn't really think about the scars that cover his entire body anymore. If you see David, maybe you'll still stare, but not because of his burns, but because he's an inspiration.

"You either keep going or you just lay down and die. I don't want to lay down and die, I'm not done," David said. "I still want to have a life. I still have things I want to do in my life. I'm only 39, it's not time for me to go yet."

David is meeting with a neurosurgeon in a few months, then hopefully he'll find the answers he's been looking for.

If people want to help David with his travel expenses they can donate under the "David Van Scyoc Benefit Fund" at any US Bank branch.