How a cup of tea caused the worst day in my life

[benc]

Guys,

I thought some of you may be interested to see the damage a cup of tea can do.

On tuesday, I stupidly left a cup of tea on the table in the kitchen while opening the back door to go and do my work.. on the way back to the table, I got distracted for about 10 seconds... what I hadnt realised is my 14month old son had quickly crawled accross the room, stood up at the table... and pulled the tea down... he screamed the loudest scream I have every heard and my girlfriend and I ran to him,, grabbed him, saw the tea had spilt on him and upon taking his clothes off, we saw the worst site we've ever seen.. his chest was bright red, and it looked like the skin had just all melted


The tea hit him mainly on the chest, and splashed under his chin and on to his hand.. we called 999, and an ambulance arrived, he was wrapped up in cling film and we were taken to southampton general hospital, on arrival he had to have a shot of morphine to deal with the pain, the burns were checked and we were then sent over to Salisbury District hospitals burns unit.

His burns were checked by a nurse, and a plastic surgeon... he had deep tissue damage on a small area on his chest, and mainly superficial burns elsewhere

He was then redressed and then we spent the rest of the day waiting around for him to get a slot in theatre so the burns could be properly cleaned, and have a special biological dressing called Biobrane to help repair the deep tissue damage. We spent the next few days in hospital, and finally arrived home late on friday night.

He has been checked out by several doctors, and they say the wounds are healing well, but only time will tell. We have to go back and visit the hospital this coming week and have the dressings changed again...

I just want people to be aware why it is so important to put hot drinks well out of the way of children, until we saw this we never realised a cup of tea would do so much damage in such a short time.. his clothes were off within 30 seconds of it happening and he was having cold water poured on him.

I've attached a picture which was taken on friday morning when he had the dressings changed.

[chewy]

Glad he's going to be ok, know what he's going through, not pleasent at all.
Good old NHS!

Hows he getting on now?

[Hightower]

I really feel for you. That's a horrible burn! I hope he makes a full recovery with no scaring. Just goes to show you how quick children can get around. My Son fell down the stairs 3 separate times and we had a stair gate in place and closed on each occasion. He just managed to launch himself over the top of the gate

Try not to blame yourself as accidents do happen, it's impossible to keep things safe for children 100% of the time. Besides! Children always seem to have a knack of finding that 1% of times that you forget or don't realise there's a problem.

[benc]

Originally Posted by chewy

Glad he's going to be ok, know what he's going through, not pleasent at all.
Good old NHS!

Hows he getting on now?

He is doing well - we had to go back to the hospital 11pm last night because he woke up, and decided to pull off the dressing on his hand, I went into his room to check on him, and he had the special wet guaze stuck to his face, and the bandage handing around his wrist! - little git.

They said his hand is healing well, and doesnt need the dressing on now, which is a bonus.

Its hard getting him to take his pain killers, so we're having to put it into his milk for him to take

[benc]

Originally Posted by Hightower

I really feel for you. That's a horrible burn! I hope he makes a full recovery with no scaring. Just goes to show you how quick children can get around. My Son fell down the stairs 3 separate times and we had a stair gate in place and closed on each occasion. He just managed to launch himself over the top of the gate

Try not to blame yourself as accidents do happen, it's impossible to keep things safe for children 100% of the time. Besides! Children always seem to have a knack of finding that 1% of times that you forget or don't realise there's a problem.

Its so hard not to blame myself... if I had moved it back on the table, even 10 cm, he would have been able to reach it... im just grateful I had white tea, and not black coffee like I normally do!

He's only just got over a day 10 day stint of sickness and diorrhea... he was well for about 1 day before this happened

[biffer]

Originally Posted by benc

Its so hard not to blame myself... if I had moved it back on the table, even 10 cm, he would have been able to reach it... im just grateful I had white tea, and not black coffee like I normally do!

He's only just got over a day 10 day stint of sickness and diorrhea... he was well for about 1 day before this happened

don't blame yourself, my nippers 36 and believe me you'll have plenty of time to blame yourself for something he's done, kids are tougher than you think, couple of week's time he'll be rampaging around again, just don't make him into a cotton wool kid eh!

[benc]

Originally Posted by biffer

don't blame yourself, my nippers 36 and believe me you'll have plenty of time to blame yourself for something he's done, kids are tougher than you think, couple of week's time he'll be rampaging around again, just don't make him into a cotton wool kid eh!

Oh believe me, he is already rampaging around! He was up to his normal tricks a day or so after, once the several doses of morphine had worn off! He's not letting it affect him too much... even when he first had his hand bandaged (looked like a boxing glove) he still managed to crawl around and pick things up with the tips of his fingers

[BLACKSTORM]

I would just like to wish him a speedy recovery as any one on here does

[JSP]

I've got 7 kids and I know exactly how quickly accidents can happen.
I wish your little boy a speedy recovery and I hope you don't beat yourself up to much over it.

[Jimbo]

Ben, that's really bad news - I can't guess how you and your girlfriend must have been feeling at the time, not to mention your lad.

All the best for his speedy recovery.