A parent's perspective – Skin deep

Transcript

[Different parents talk]

Her hand came out through the black smoke and our hands literally just miss. We were just about to touch, and her hand just fell back in the smoke and I can remember thinking she's gone.

She was on a boat and then she wakes up in hospital and literally head to toes in bandages and tubes everywhere and pain and burn and she was terrified.

The hospital people were just amazing. Anything we needed, they will be there with whatever you need. And I think the thing is to let them be there. Don't, don't try and do it on your own.

Go day by day in the early stages, because that's all you can do.

Take a breath, and just know that it's, it's gonna be okay.

Listen to what the health professionals tell you. They are there to help you get the best result in the fastest period of time. So do what they say because they know what they're talking about. And just listen.

The only silly thing is the people who don't ask the questions, you know, there's no such thing as a silly question. That's how you get your peace of mind is, is by asking.

And when you do ask the questions, write everything down because you can't remember everything because you will be sleep deprived because there's, there aren't enough hours in the day.

Being burnt is not the end of your world. You will recover. Remember how strong you are. You mightn't feel strong. You mightn't think that you can do this, but you can try and focus on achieving, you know, some small thing each day. Like the physios are amazing. They give you tasks to do, like even if it's playing with Play-Doh or, to build up your hand strengths or, you know, focus on those things that you can do.

Negotiate with them and just say, all right, how about we do 15 minutes of physio and then you can have an ice cream. And then later after dinner we'll do the other 15 minutes or something and just try and diffuse the situations so that it doesn't become a battleground because, you're both working, or everyone is working towards the best possible result.

You're no good to them if you don't look after yourself. You have to get sleep, you have to eat, and you have to look after yourself. You have to speak to your partner, talk to the support people, talk about how you're feeling.

Honesty was really important and I think as long as we were able to explain to her what it was for and try and help her to see that, you know, if this hand is like this, you're gonna be able to do so much more if we can operate so that your hand is like this again. And just walk her through it all and get her to understand. As difficult as it is, you have to try and keep it together because you're the adult and you know that everyone in the hospital is working towards getting your child well.

Remember how strong you are. You mightn't feel strong. You mightn't think that you can do this. But you can. You know, things will be thrown at you. People will be pushing you from pillar to post and doing things that you don't want them to do.

But you, you just need to be really as stable as you can for them and try and keep a calm head.

I was told a few times that, you know, I may lose Sarah, but the doctors always give you the worst case scenario because that's their job. They have to, it doesn't necessarily mean it's gonna happen.

It's hard work and it's all consuming, but it's only for a little while and just take it day by day.