Debra "Debbie" Bowes survived the explosion, the ravaging fire, the unspeakable pain of burns. To her, it’s old news that a gas stove exploded 12 years ago and burned 80 percent of her body.

The hard times she spent struggling to build a new life, that too she doesn’t want to dwell on.

"What I like is when I find another thing I can do by myself, that’s exciting," said Bowes, 34.

Like how she dressed herself on a recent morning in a red outfit. How she can drive again, and go to movies and restaurants- which is good because she hates to cook and loves to eat lobster.

She graduated with honors from Mesa College and carries a 3.9 grade point average at San Diego State, two places in which she had no interest before her accident.

"Before, I put all my energy into having boyfriends," she said. "I depended on having someone, whereas now I’m independent."

Her latest achievement has been one of the most important of all, the precious gift of vision.

Her eyesight was failing, "I couldn’t even see the big E on the eye chart," she said, laughing.

How could Bowes wear eyeglasses ? The fire had taken most of her ears and nose.

Bowes partially solved the problem by wearing contact lenses. Still, since the fire destroyed fingers as well, every morning she had to wrestle with those pesky lenses, getting them into her eyes somehow with what was left of her arms and hands.

Then one day last spring, she developed an eye infection.

Infections were common for her because she has to wear so much pancake makeup to cover her facial burns, and the cosmetics often irritated her lenses.

In frustration, Bowes flipped through the phone book, and out of the hundreds of ophthalmologists listed, she picked Dr. Richard J. Leung (she says she liked his ad with the big red type). She went to his San Diego Eye Institute office near the Clairemont home she shares with her father, Bill, a semi-retired tax accountant.

The eye surgeon, who lives in Rancho Santa Fe and runs an office in Del Mar, remembers their first meeting well.

"We were talking, and I felt such an emotional response to her story, I really wanted to do something," Leung.

Leung favors quick answers, and by the end of what started as a routine visit, he had come to a quick decision. He decided to fix her eyes permanently.

Leung performs intricate corneal surgery that corrects vision. He had just started performing a new variation on an old method, called radial keratotomy. The new technique is called "down-up" LASIK, (Laser in-Situ Keratomileusis). It is done with lasers that "fillet" the cornea by cutting away the top part, and using it as a flap to hold the sculpting of the rest of the eye’s lens in place.

But there was no way Bowes, a student who is supported by Medi-Care and Medi-Cal, could afford the nearly $4,000 price tag.

"I made a lot of phone call," is how Leung put it. He convinced the San Diego Eye Bank to donate its laser, and everyone else to donate their services. On June 29, he operated on Bowes’ right eye for free.

"It took 20 minutes and it seemed like I could see instantly," she said excitedly.

The correction was not a slam dunk, despite their confidence. Leung said he was concerned about the burn scarring around her eyes complicating the procedure and the healing. But both have pronounced the first surgery a success, and she is scheduled to have an operation on her other eye on Aug. 25.

For Bowes, the rebuilding of a life fragment by fragment has been filled with milestones. Most of all, she says, she is grateful to UCSD Medical Center burn unit for saving her life.

Then there are her family and friends who sat by her hospital bed for nine months.

"They were there every day. If I had an itch, they would scratch it," she recalled, no small thing for a burn victim with constant pain.

She remains thankful for receiving a prosthetic nose and ears that help her feel more like her old self.