A mother experienced a “parent's worst nightmare” when her young son spilled a cup of scalding tea on himself and had to undergo a skin graft and was bandaged “like a mummy.”
The child continues to wear a compression shirt for 22 hours a day one year later.
Michelle Downes, 38, dialed 999 as soon as she found out what had happened to her then two-year-old son Jenson, while his father Jamie's back was briefly turned at home, where her son was also present. son Maddox, seven years old. she lives, in No Man's Heath, Cheshire, in May last year.
Jamie had just made herself a cup of tea and was turning to throw the tea bag in the trash when Jenson walked up to the counter, lowered the cup, and the scalding hot water spilled all over her body.
Because of seeing Jenson in such intense pain — he was screaming and his skin was “bright red and peeling off” — Michelle said she had to “pretend he wasn't (her) son” to stay calm and help calm him down. . bathing it in water.
Jenson, now three, was airlifted to Royal Manchester Children's Hospital and doctors discovered he was suffering from burns to the right side of his body and face, so they had to perform a skin graft and bandage the entire area. upper body.
Michelle believes that since the accident Jenson has become more sensitive to touch: he has to be held to cut his hair and his toenails are cut while he sleeps.
Upon arriving home, Michelle and her husband, Jamie, a 45-year-old chimney sweep, rearranged their kitchen so the kettle was as far away from the edges as possible and are still “more nervous” to this day.
“(Jamie) literally just turned his back on him, and then the next thing you heard was the slam of a cup and then a scream,” Michelle told PA Real Life.
“I was upstairs so I didn't actually see what happened, but I heard it.
“At first, I thought he had put a knife aside because he had just made them dinner… I didn't hear the squish, I just heard the scream, then I ran down the stairs and from Jamie's voice I knew something serious.
“I walked in and he was soaked but he was screaming, my oldest son was screaming too… it's a parent's worst nightmare and you never think something like this could happen to you, but it can happen.
“His skin looked like a tomato when it was boiled; his whole skin was bright red and peeling off.”
On the night of May 17, Jenson, then two years old, accidentally spilled boiling tea on himself while in the kitchen with his father.
Jamie quickly put Jenson in the sink so he could bathe in cold water to help soothe the burn, and Michelle called 999; The call operator helped Michelle and asked her to put her son in a warm shower.
Michelle said: “I had to pretend he wasn't my son and was just someone at work who had been badly burned, so I carried on and was pretty calm.
“I might have been surprised… although inside I was panicking, I tried to stay calm.
“While my husband was very scared and really upset, distraught.”
Within 20 minutes, a North West Air Ambulance Charity helicopter arrived, providing fluids and advanced pain relief.
“It was really a sigh of relief when they came in, because you felt like you weren't alone and it made you feel calm,” Michelle said.
“They took control of the situation and I felt like everything was going to be okay.”
At the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, doctors began by washing Jenson's wounds and bandaging him all over, from the waist up, to make him “look like a mummy.”
They then took him into surgery for the skin graft, taking skin from his right thigh and grafting it onto his right shoulder, and continued taping it for the next four weeks.
“I collapsed because you couldn't see his face; “She had duct tape around her head and bandages all over her face, although she wasn't badly burned, she still needed them,” Michelle explained.
“He just didn't look like him: he couldn't show any facial expression, he couldn't do anything.
“I think he kind of got used to it every day, but it was hard for him… every time the door opened, he tried to run away.”
One of the first things Michelle and her husband did when they got home was reorganize the kitchen to avoid other accidents.
“There is nothing close to the sides; “We’ve moved the kettle to the furthest point from the kitchen and we don’t let him into the kitchen alone,” Michelle said.
“Now we don't use the two front burners because we are worried that he will obviously reach and lower a saucepan.
“It's made us more panicked: As soon as he runs into the kitchen, I say, 'Jamie, go get him.'
“It's definitely made us a little more nervous and more cautious.”
Jenson has become more sensitive to touch and now has to wear a compression shirt for 22 hours a day to lessen the severity of the scars.
“I just think he doesn't like being locked up or forced into a position he doesn't want to be in,” she said.
“Now, when cutting his hair, we have to immobilize him and it is traumatic for him and for us, but it has to be done.
“We have to cut his toenails at night, when he sleeps. So it's all those things you never really think about.
“He's also a nightmare with medication; even when he has a cold, we have a hard time giving him anything because he has to take so much in the hospital.”
Over time, her skin graft is less visible and Michelle hopes it won't affect her in the future.
“It's already faded quite a bit and is the same color as his skin,” he said.
“So the skin doesn't really look any different other than being wrinkled.
“You wouldn't really know it by looking at it – at school the only time you can see it is in PE – but I think when he gets to that age it will be less noticeable.”
