TOLEDO -- As families across the area gathered around dinner tables for a day of Thanksgiving Thursday, one local teenager celebrated with family at the hospital.

Tiffany Bates, 14, and her family spent this Thanksgiving at the Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center cafeteria, but they say they have never been more thankful. 

The family recounted a scary accident involving their home's heater that threatened Tiffany's life just weeks ago. "Life we've always done before, I just said, Tiffany, would you go check on the fire," said Tiffany's mother Jenny Bates. "I heard one blood-curdling scream and I ran down to the basement steps and I saw her face on fire. It was white, blue, red."

Tiffany suffered second and third degree burns on her face, chest and arms.  She needed several surgeries and has spent more than a month in the hospital. Yet, she is alive, and that makes this holiday season perfect for the Bates.

"After everything we've been through in the month it's just so great. Tiff gets to go home...and to be able to share Thanksgiving with our family is pretty special," said Tiffany's father Dale Bates.

Tiffany herself was surprised so many of her loved ones dropped other plans to spend Thanksgiving with her at the hospital. "They said, 'No, we want to be with you because we're thankful that we still have you'," Tiffany recounted from Mercy's cafeteria Thursday.

When asked what Tiffany is thankful for this year, she responded, "...that I'm alive and that I'm better and that so many people care about me."