Arthur’s Story…Burned by a Hot Drink

In April this year, aged 2 years 9 months, Arthur was playing in the garden with his sister.  His mum had made a pot of coffee and put it at the back of the worktop in the kitchen.  In the blink of an eye he had come back into the kitchen, climbed onto the worktop and spilled it over his neck, arm, chest and leg.  His mum immediately put him under cold running water until the ambulance arrived 30 minutes later.  Arthur was taken to his local hospital, Addenbrookes, where he received initial treatment for the pain and was transferred to the Regional Burns Service at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford – over 60 miles from home.

Arthur was in hospital for 10 days during which time he had 3 skin grafts on his arm, armpit and chest.  Mum, Laura, stayed with him in a chair next to his bed – and his grandparents brought his 5 year old sister on the 121 mile round trip to visit nearly every day.

2 months on Arthur is doing amazingly well – he now has a tubigrip on his arm where he had the skin graft. All affected areas need to be creamed 5 times a day and Arthur returns regularly to Broomfield Hospital for scar therapy and on-going treatment.  Mum says “he comes to me when his skin is getting itchy and has leant to “scratch” with his palm, not his nails”.

Having seen at first hand the devastation caused by an accident that happened in the blink of an eye, Arthur’s parents are very keen to raise awareness of the dangers of hot drinks and to prevent further accidents like this from happening.