William the Whippersnapper: Johnny gets burnt!

therneau (58)in #steemiteducation • 6 years ago

After school William went to Johnny’s house to work on a project they had to complete for the annual science fair.

“I’m hungry” Johnny said.

“Let’s make some boiled eggs. My mom always makes me boiled eggs for breakfast. I know how to make it” William said.

Johnny agreed and the boys proceeded to add water to a pot, put the eggs in and put it on the stove top. After the eggs were boiling for a while William told Johnny to take it off.

“Okay” Johnny said, excited at the thought of them having made their very own boiled eggs.

As Johnny grabbed the handles of the pot and picked it up it started burning his hands. He let go of the one side and the boiling hot water spilled all over his hand.

“Ouch!” Johnny yelled.

His hand felt like it was on fire as he started screaming and crying in pain.

“Quick” William said, concerned about what just happened. “Put your hand in some cold water.”

“It burns” Johnny cried, visibly in terrible pain, tears running down his face.

He stuck his hand under the tap of cool running water and William told him to keep it there while he went to fetch some butter.

“Butter is the best thing to put on a burn” William said. “I’ll get some out of the fridge.”

“How do you know?” Johnny asked

“I just know” William said as he rummaged through the fridge, trying to find the butter. William actually couldn’t remember but he thought someone told him at some point to put butter on a burn.

After a minute William found the butter.

“How’s your hand feeling now?” he asked Johnny.

“It’s feeling a bit better”

“Ok,” William said “then you’ll be ok. Let’s switch the water off and I’ll put the butter on.”

William and Johnny both seemed relieved however this only lasted a short while after William put the butter on his friend’s hand. Johnny’s hand started hurting again.

“Ouch” he cried. “It’s burning again!”

“Ok, here, quick” said William. “We must put some ice on it too. It’s colder.”

Johnny put his hand in the bucket of ice they’d pulled from the freezer. It seemed to help after a little while and as the tears started subsiding from Johnny’s face they heard Johnny’s mom open the front door.

“Hello Johnny” she said as she turned around to see the boys sitting on the couch. That’s when she noticed Johnny’s hand submerged in the bucket of ice.

“Johnny, what happened!” his mom yelled.

Johnny started crying “I burned my hand with hot water” he said.

Johnny’s mom ran over to the boys “Johnny!” she said. “How did that happen?”

Johnny told his mommy the story and she decided that he needed to get to the hospital right away.

With that Johnny’s mom grabbed the boys, a thick, wet cloth with cool water and gently wrapped it around Johnny’s hand before rushing off to the hospital.

The doctor looked at Johnny’s hand. “Oh dear young man” the doctor said. “You got burnt quite badly. Now tell me exactly what happened. This is a second degree burn.”

William, being very verbal told the doctor the entire story, gloating about how he saved his friend by using butter and ice after running it under some cold water.

“So how long was Johnny’s hand under the cold water?” the doctor asked.

“Well, until it stopped burning so much, right Johnny” William stated, gleaming with pride.

“Oh dear” the doctor said. “When someone gets burnt like that you should keep it under cool running water for at least 10 minutes, even up to 20 minutes.”

“Oh no” Johnny said. “We only had it under the water for a little while.”

“Johnny” William intervened “we did put the butter on afterwards. I know you must do that.”

“No William” the doctor said. “You should never put butter on a burn. It stops your skin from breathing and holds the heat in.”

Johnny’s mom looked over at William. He was arguing with her in the car about putting butter on a burn.

“I told William the same thing doctor” Johnny’s mom said “however he just doesn’t want to listen.”

William’s face turned red as he started blushing. Then he wanted to start arguing again “Well,” he said “at least I told Johnny to put his hand in the ice.”

“That was also not the right thing to do” stated the doctor.

“Oh dear” gasped Johnny’s mom. “Why not doctor?” she asked.

“It can cause skin damage. Even frostbite! You see,” proceeded the doctor “the tissue under your skin is very sensitive. When you burn yourself and put ice on it you don’t feel the cold from the ice as much as you usually would and this can damage your skin. This damage will slow down the time it takes for your skin to heal. The best thing would be to keep cool water running over the burn area for about 15 minutes and if the burn area is larger than, say, an adult’s thumb, you should seek medical attention as soon as possible.”

“Thank you doctor” exclaimed Johnny’s mom. “I never knew that you shouldn’t put ice on a burn.”

“Certainly” the doctor said. “It’s only a pleasure.”

As the doctor finished up treating Johnny’s hand with special burn pads and bandages his mom told the boys.

“Please, don’t ever work with anything hot without adult supervision. You boys have seen how quickly an accident can happen.”

“Your mommy is absolutely right” the doctor said. “It’s not a good idea to do anything that might be dangerous without adult supervision. It’s okay to want to try new things but you should always ask an adult for help.”

“Yes doctor”” the boys replied.

Q & A:

How should you treat burns?

You should keep the burn area under cool running water for about 15 minutes.

When do you need to go and see a doctor?

When the burn area is larger than an adult thumb

What is frostbite?

Frostbite is when parts of the body become frozen due to exposure to cold temperatures. There are 4 different degrees of frostbite depending on the severity, some of which can cause irreversible damage.

What’s the difference between 1st, 2nd & 3rd degree burns?

1st degree burns are superficial.
2nd degree burns have relatively thick damage which causes blistering.
3rd degree burns cause deep tissue damage, blackening the skin.

Additional information:

https://www.healthline.com/health/burns#overview1