Ben Argento was less than 10 days away from his planned nuptials when he was involved in a serious accident caused by an explosion. 

Argento, who grew up in Powell but now lives and works in the Gillette area, and another employee of Principal Petroleum were doing some work at a natural gas compressor station near Moorcroft on Dec. 11 when the explosion occurred. 

He spent almost a month in the UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital Burn Unit in Denver after a quarter of his body received severe burns. However, instead of postponing the wedding, he and his now-wife Courtney decided to move ahead with it. Family members and the Burn ICU nursing team came together to make it happen inside the hospital a little over a week after his arrival. 

“At that point you just realize what the most important things in life are, and that time is definitely way too short,” Courtney said. “There was no better time to do it than when we did.”

Life changes in a second

When the explosion occurred, Ben was transported to Campbell County Health for treatment and then airlifted to the burn unit at UCHealth. He doesn’t remember much about the hours after his accident. Once he arrived at the hospital he was sedated and transported to Denver. 

“Every once in a while they would lighten up on sedation to ask me questions, or for me to talk to Courtney, but I don't remember much until the morning of the 12th,” he said.

When Courtney got a call about the accident she rushed to the ER and was able to spend a few hours with Ben before he was sent to Denver. Her family then drove her to Colorado and she was able to be there for his entire stay.

“My work was very good to me so I was able to stay and sleep on the couch in the hospital,” she said.

Saying ‘I do’

During the early days of his care, Ben and Courtney mentioned their wedding plans to the nurses. The couple had decided to elope Dec. 20 at a small chapel in Gillette and have a larger ceremony later in the year. Hospital staff encouraged them to go ahead with the small ceremony and have it in the burn unit. 

“We ended up figuring it was a good idea, so we went with it,” Ben said.

The care team transformed a conference space into a wedding venue and gathered staff and family to help the couple say “I do.” They were married by Ben’s cousin, a former judge. Ben’s parents and sister, and Courtney’s dad and sister were able to attend, with those who couldn’t make it able to watch on FaceTime.

The wedding occurred Dec. 23, just three days after their original date. 

“It was a good day — the fact that Ben could get up and he could be around people, and he was making progress,” Courtney said. “I think emotions were high, but it was more excitement and it was something really happy in a really crappy situation.”

Road to healing

The explosion caused second- and third-degree burns to Ben’s torso, arms and hands. After allowing his body some time to heal naturally, doctors decided to use a dermal substitute on some of his burns.

“It's like a biosynthetic wrap that they put over your skin to allow it to heal naturally, but with a little bit of help,” Ben said. “After that they determine what spots are healing and going to heal fully on their own, or what spots need grafting that aren't going to be able to heal on their own.”

He had grafting done on 9% of his body, with his final surgery happening on New Year’s Eve.  

He was released from the hospital Jan. 9 and is now back home in Gillette still healing and doing multiple stretching exercises to try to return to his full range of motion. 

“Back burns are notorious for loss of mobility,” he said.

And the couple are still planning their larger wedding ceremony, just on an altered timeline. They had put down a deposit on a venue in Montana for this fall, but have since pushed the date back to September 2027.