What happens when . . .

. . . you stick a pipe cleaner in the electrical socket? Grant found out the hard way. We were spending a quiet afternoon at home today when the peace was broken by Grant screaming at the top of his lungs. I had been taking a nap when Spence came running in saying,

"Lydia, Grant burned himself!"

Oh great. This is the boy that doesn't pass a week without shedding any blood. (Last Friday he bit through the corner of his lip.) I came out to assess and his fingers were black. There was a lot of confusion as to what happened, but Mairyn reconstructed the story as best we can tell. So, her and Grant are in the bedroom playing. Mairyn was up on the bunk bed ladder and Grant was sitting on the floor by the wall. He stuck a pipe cleaner in the wall socket, we don't think he got shocked, but the wire heated up, burned the fuzz, the wire burned his fingers and the fuzz melted to his fingers. He threw the wire and it melted through the curtain and into the carpet. The curtain flamed up, but was out by the time we got there. (we now have a nice, loopy 'S' burned there) I called the RMO (regional medical officer. say it with me: we love acronyms!) and they said to meet them at the Maadi Health Unit.

Fortunately for us, there is an ER docter here on TDY (temporary deployment, meaning he's just here for a month or so). He had dealt with burns before and handled everything beautifully. Grant was in a lot of pain, so they gave him a shot of morphine right in the rear end. He protested, kicked the nurse in the stomach and then about 7 minutes later, was VERY relaxed. Dr. Dave began by soaking his hands and then debriding the wounds, peeling off the plastic and extricating it from the burns. Grant was very calm throughout the process (thank you, morphine). The Dr. Dave wrapped both of his hands up like boxing gloves, loaded us up with gauze, tape, burn goop and codeine. Yay for codeine.

So now Grant is the proud owner of two hands wrapped up like boxing gloves. Also, he will have very unique fingerprints from now on. The wire burned into his flesh on both index fingers and thumbs. The wire curved around and left diagonal tracks on all of his finger pads. They are 2nd & 3rd degree burns, but insha'allah, he will be fine. We're just praying for no infection and a patient boy.