For two weeks, I was in a hospital caring for my 12 years old
son who was seriously burned by hot water.
I had a very harrowing time watching my son scream with two eyes open
when a pot of boiling water fell on him and left part of his back, hand and leg
peeled off immediately. The sight of his body was pathetic. There were lots of
suggestions from neighbors on how to handle it, some suggested we should apply
eggs, pap, salt etc but I was not convinced because of the degree of the burn,
I was only interested in running cold water from the tap on the wound and thinking
of how to move him to the hospital.
As a result of this step taken, This is the 4th week the incident
occurred and the wound is completely healed, his skin smooth, no deformity and
no scars at all. I see so many people
with permanent scars and deformed bodies because of the burns they had which might not be as serious as my son’s and the reason
being that it was badly handled at home before going to the hospital.
Burns are of three types: 1st Degree or minor burns,
2nd Degree and 3rd Degree. While you can successfully
manage or treat 1st degree burns at home, there is certainly nothing
much a person who is not a qualified medical practitioner can do for a patient
with 2nd and especially 3rd degree burns rather than a
little first aid which I have enumerated below and immediately helping the
patience to the hospital. This is to
avoid infection, much scarring and deformity of the body.
The fact that we do not pray for unfortunate incidents like this
to happen, does not mean it can not happen.
Hence the reason why I decided to share my experience with my readers
on how to handle serious burns to achieve the best result.
These
are what you should do:
Console
the Patience: Burns happens instantaneously
and as a result can cause shock and or seizure to the victim. Your duty at this point in time is to comfort
him, reassure him that he will be alright while you look for means of getting
him to the hospital. This will also stabilize
the victim and prevent fainting.
Help
to Prevent Infection: The skin serves as
protection to the body, when it peels off, the body is highly open to infections
and diseases. Try as much as possible to
remove anything that may cause infection from the victim e.g. dirty clothes,
jewelries, sand etc. Also avoid contact with the wound with bare hands, if
there is any need to touch the wound, use sterilized hand gloves.
While making arrangement to move the victim to the hospital, try
and run some cold water from the tap on the wound, this will help to keep the
body temperature cool (do not use ice block or ice water as this can cause more
damage to the skin) then rap the wound with a clean cloth preferably white
cotton material. You can also give some
analgesics like ‘paracetamol’ to reduce pain and body temperature.
Burns of this magnitude exposes the victim to other serious
infections and diseases like: tetanus, fever, seizure which may lead to death
if not given the right treatment. More
especially it can leave the victim with permanent disability if badly handled. It is only wise the victim be managed by a
qualified medical practitioner so as to get the best result and avoid untimely
death.
I hope this helps.