Catherine

Age at interview: 30

Brief Outline:

Catherine’s son was 14 months old when he was burnt after touching a hot BBQ. She took him to A&E but was told they would need to attend an appointment at a specialist burns centre. Catherine found that talking about the experience was the key to managing her emotions.

Background:

Catherine is 30 years old. She is an emergency service worker. She lives with her husband and their two children. Her ethnicity is White British.

More about me...

Catherine’s son was 14 months old when he sustained a burn to his hand after touching a hot BBQ. Catherine and her husband took their son to A&E where he was assessed and given some ibuprofen and dressed the burn. After going to their local A&E department, Catherine was told she would need to drive to a more specialised burns centre.

When they arrived at the burns centre, Catherine was told that her son’s burn would need to be cleaned, and the blister that had formed would need to be removed. This was to minimise the risk of infection. Catherine found this “heart-breaking” to watch, though the healthcare staff were “very supportive”. After being cleaned, her son’s burn was redressed with bandages.

Catherine said her son found it difficult to crawl in the initial few days after the burn as the wound was still raw. She said there weren’t many difficulties getting back to everyday life after her son was burnt and this was because the burn began to heal quickly. Catherine’s son was able to return to nursery as the healthcare staff from the burns centre went to his nursery and taught the childcare practitioners how to clean and dress the wound if needed.

In terms of her relationship with her husband, Catherine found the period after her son was burnt to be a “difficult time”. They both struggled with feelings of guilt and blame and tried not to blame one another. Talking to each other regularly helped them to cope with their emotions, as well as recognising their shared goal was for their “son to be better and support him as much as you can”.

Catherine also found it beneficial to talk to other parents and her local baby group. These groups were a good support system for her and helped her to understand that most parents go through similar experiences to her.

Catherine’s son was burnt after he touched a hot BBQ.

So me and my partner, were outside, we were having a BBQ, and it was the last one of the year, it was a really nice sunny day in September, so we thought ‘We’ll have a BBQ’ and our little boy was out in the garden, just starting to kind of pull himself up and just, you know, just be a devil really, but just exploring, you know, the world. And I was setting the table, my partner was at the BBQ, and I went in and just said ‘Oh, just keep an eye, he’s in the pool’ you know, it was like an inch full, he was just sat in there paddling, and somehow he managed to climb out. He went up behind my partner, pulled himself up on the BBQ and it touched kind of the drum underneath, I was in the kitchen, and I just heard screaming and my partner called me.

Catherine found attending local baby groups, as well as humour, to be good coping mechanisms.

But I found, actually, something that I did find useful when on maternity leave is baby groups. They’re really good, that’s where I heard the stories. So, yeah, they’re really, really good. So, I would recommend anyone to go to them because, again, especially if you’ve moved somewhere and you don’t know anyone, like it’s a good support system and people go through the same things as you and they get it, you know? They’re in the same situation as you.

Did you find that you felt better after talking to people about anything that was on your mind about it?

Yeah, I’m a bit of a joker anyway, I would … I make jokes now about it, you know? Like, ‘Do you want to put the BBQ on?’ Just light-hearted jokes because that’s how I guess I deal with it, that’s my sense of humour. But, you know, everybody’s different.

So, would you say that a sense of humour and humour is a kind of coping mechanism that you have?

Yeah, I guess so yeah. But everybody’s different, aren’t they? You know, some people could find that quite inappropriate, you know, whereas I see it as it’s happened, there’s nothing I can do about it, everything’s ok now.