Burn Injury Etiquette

I have been thinking about terms used for people who have had burn injuries.

                                               MeiMei in hard "day" mask

 While there are many ways to describe people with burn injuries for me the word "victim" is NOT one of them.  You see, I was taught that the "victims" died from their injuries.  Whereas being burned and living with scars made me a "survivor". 

VICTIM is a word that  will never describe a child on this blog.  This term is negative in that the kids have FOUGHT hard to LIVE and SURVIVE!   The children often survive without their first moms and dads.  They are usually alone in the hospitals without the comfort of their parents.

BURNT vs BURNED:  I do not like the term BURNT to describe a person or a child who has burn injuries.   To me, it brings to mind a dinner gone wrong when a mom has "burnt the roast" verses "the children were burned in an accident."                                                              .

While each person scars in their own way, the scars are just that... SCARS.  the scars do not affect the health of a child, however, when a young child is burned, surgeries are often needed to help the grafted skin grow.  Skin that has been grafted is actually a transplant from donor site from another area on the injured person.  It is thinner, more fragile and needs more care/caution taken in some circumstances (beach trips, outside exposure, while cooking etc...) than the original skin we are all born with.  

Scarring, also depends on each person.  For myself, my scars are mainly flat in appearance.  I have a few raised scars, but they do not cause me any problems.  My daughter will develop keloid scars, which are thick, hard , bands of scar tissue which are raised.  The children on this blog will all have scars.  Both the physical and the emotional scars of the actual injury as well as the emotional injuries of having been left to be found, can and do heal, given time and the proper care.

Compression garments are form fitted gloves, shirts, sleeves, pants or leggings, socks, and masks for the head and face to help keep the scarring from forming the keloid bands.  The garments help prevent raised scars.  My daughter, MeiMei wore them for 2 years on her face, hands and left arm.  She also wore the tight bicycle shorts for her graft sites to compress those scars as well.  Today, MeiMei is a beautiful young lady with the minimal of raised scars. 


Compression Garments and Masks help kids to heal.



 MeiMei in night mask and custom made
gloves.

Many things can be done through medical intervention and reconstructive surgery... Burn Injuries can be "scary" because scarring can be scary.  The main thing to know about burn injuries is, while scarring is permanent, it can be minimized with the proper care and therapies....

***all pictures copyrighted to Barbara Ingalsbe.  Please do NOT take without permission.***