Tom
Tom was in his early twenties when a flammable liquid was poured onto a barbecue which set alight. He sustained burns to his hands, chest, knees, forearms, and face. Tom stayed in hospital for 5 days. He decided not to have skin grafts and let his skin heal naturally.
Tom is 24 years old and works full-time as an Analytical Chemist. He is single. His ethnicity is White British.
More about me...
Tom was attending a family barbecue at his parents’ house when flammable liquid was poured onto the BBQ to relight the coals. Tom was burned by the flames. He sustained 25% TBSA (total body surface area) burns to his hands, chest, knees, forearms, and face.
Tom felt very disorientated immediately after being burned and did not realise he was “fully on fire”, he now believes he was experiencing a state of shock. When he realised what had happened, Tom “dropped and rolled” before running into a nearby stream to cool his burns. Tom’s father then assisted him into the shower where running water was applied to his burns. An ambulance was called and Tom was taken to hospital.
At the hospital Tom remembers being intubated before he was transported to a specialist burns unit. He woke up after 2 days of intubation in an intensive care unit. When Tom awoke, he remembers feeling confused and uncomfortable because he wasn’t aware what had happened. He also felt uncertain about the future and how his scars would look.
Tom felt relieved when he was discharged from the hospital and able to continue his recovery at home. In the initial few weeks after his burn, Tom sometimes felt annoyed that his usual daily tasks would take longer, such as showering as he had to be careful not to wet his bandages. Speaking about returning to daily life after a burn, Tom said that “everything which you’d normally not even think about was a bit of a difficulty”.
Sometimes Tom experiences itching and stiffness around his scars, especially after washing up, he says moisturising the scars helps to combat this. He believes taking care of his skin has now become part of his daily routine.
Although Tom is still nervous around fires, he says that living with a burn injury gets easier over time, and he feels that he is in control over his own life. He appreciates other people treating him “as a normal person” and not staring at his scars. Tom thinks that talking about his experience of having a burn is helpful sometimes because it “gets rid of any worries if you talk about stuff”.
Tom’s advice to healthcare professionals working with people with burns is to be honest with their patients and ensure that they have access to relevant information about burns. Initially after his burn, Tom says one of his biggest stressors was not having the answers he wanted, and he believes healthcare professionals can change this for the future by providing accessible information.
Tom wanted to recover at home as he found being an inpatient “uncomfortable”.
Tom wanted to recover at home as he found being an inpatient “uncomfortable”.
I’d say five days-ish, so not that long. I think it was once, like, they slowly started taking the bandages off, you know, and because I was 21 or -2, the skin heals quite quickly, and it sort of reached a point where I sort of wanted to go home and try and do it from home as soon as it was an option. Just because it was a bit uncomfortable in the hospital and, just, I don’t know, just sort of stuck in a room with a tiny TV, not being able to do much and, yeah, it wasn’t too long in the hospital.
I think it was a bit of a discussion both ways, they just, I think they were asking ‘You can stay if you want but if you want to you can go home if you feel you’re ready.’ It was a bit like that, and I felt, I sort of, well, needed to go back.
Tom recalled feeling worried and stressed about earning an income after he was burnt
Tom recalled feeling worried and stressed about earning an income after he was burnt
It’s just stressful cancelling everything. I don’t know, it was just a bit of a downer. I sort of knew I had to cancel and, like, it’s difficult going around emailing people cancelling the holidays. And also, I was skint because not everything I got money back for and it was … I don’t know.
But it was, like, just another thing on top of that and then not being able to get a load of jobs, paying for, like, all that travelling to go to interviews and then just slowly becoming more and more poor. Just a bit of a stressful few months.
Yeah, it definitely sounds that way and were your parents in a situation where they could help you out financially or …?
Yeah, but I’m quite proud, so I don’t know, I did ask but, yeah, I don’t know.
Did you find it difficult to be like, be ok with asking for money?
Yeah, a bit, yeah.