But… I have to. I had decided yesterday I wasn’t going to talk about this particular patient. It is just one of those, need to get it out of your head, please don’t make me see it again, how could this happen–calls.
20 minutes left in our shift, we had gone Bravo and we were pulling into the garage–when The tones come out. Called for a 3 mo with “Burns” at one of our local problem clinics. Code 3.
We’re thinking it’s a BS Call. A) Who would take their baby with severe burns to a clinic and not call 911 or go to the hospital. B) it’s 20 min till the end of our shift and we’ve done a good job annoying the dispatcher today with our demand for details(we were sent on two transfers and when getting to County he didn’t even have the right building… sorry for wanting to know where to pick up the patient from…)
We walk in the clinic and the nurse starts spewing out details. 2nd and 3rd degree burns to 15-25% of the baby. That would be bad if it happened to me. If it happens to a baby–that can be deadly, and quick.
To boot, mom is a Nurse. Says she was on her way home and the Nanny called. Freaking out. Said that “something happened”. Yeah, no shit.
Apparently nanny had been trying to “wash” off some poo from a diaper change gone wrong. Apparently nanny was able to make Tap water eat skin and fless. Yeah.
My ass. The burn patter isn’t one of running water from a faucet, and it wasn’t one from sitting the baby down into the water. Seriously, the only thing I can see is if water was gently poured from a bottle or pan–you know, the kind you BOIL things in. Cause really, what Water faucet produces water that could cause these kinds of burns–and how couldn’t you feel the heat radiating out of the sink.
My chubby ass gets hot doing dishes in luke warm water. How could you not feel the heat coming at you. She claims she just forgot to check the water.
My faith in humans couldn’t be much lower–well, I guess we’ll see about that in a few hours…
