Keep Out of Reach

... Reporting From On Scene
Incident Type: MVA

Whew!  It's been one of those weeks.  Emotions this week were swerving high and low like a roller coaster.  There's no other words to put it other than, this.week.sucked.ass!

No. I did not have a bad hair day.  Even if I had, I doubt I would have turned to a hair straightener for a quick fix, not just because I don't have enough hair to entertain the thought of needing one, but because these damn things are hazardous.

This is one YouTube video that is worth watching:

 

Hair straighteners can reach temperatures of up to 220C (428F) and can remain scalding hot for up to eight minutes after they have been switched off.  Young children especially, can easily pick up or accidentally step on a hot hair straightener left on the floor or grab one from the bathroom counter top... opening them up and wrapping their small hands around/in between the thongs.  As children have much thinner skin than adults, these burns can be quite deep, perhaps even cause permanent scarring.

 Let me tell you (from first hand experience) if you cannot already imagine, small kids and any kind of styling iron are a bad combination.  Have you ever tried to grab hold of a young toddler who is rolling around on the floor kicking and screaming trying to get away from their pain??!?  Well, let's hope you never have to experience such a case as we did.

We held him trying to console him, cooling his hand and trying to evaluate the extent of the damage.  Then we wrapped his hand in gauze.  Landen quickly ripped it off.  We tried again and he quickly ripped that one off too.  Then we wrapped both his hands so that his left hand would not be able to remove the bandages from the right hand.  That came off too but it took him a little bit longer to do so, all while he cried 'owie!'  So one more time - both hands wrapped up, then ace bandages wrapped around both hands.
 
Gratefully, the pain medication kicked in pretty quickly and the tears stopped.  He was quite entertaining as he was clearly not feeling the pain as bad once we had him loaded and ready for his trip to the Children's Hospital in the city.

There are those people that love to say things like, "...It happened before I knew it..." or "...It happened in a split second..." then they like to blame it on the inanimate object... they THEY put there in the first place.  The Human Race.  You gotta love us.

This seemed just common sense to us, but these days it's almost as if some people seem to be so involved with themselves they don't stop to always consider what could be dangerous to others.  I don't mean to indict all parents but come one, anybody knows to keep hot things out of kids reach, don't they?

None the less, it is truly a blessing that the burns were not any worse and it's amazing how in time, young kids can heal.

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        captain
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