Kids in the kitchen - ambulance needed

Well our first day of the school holidays started in the normal lazy fashion.  No one was keen to escape their warm beds, especially me (actually that's me everyday).  It wasn't long before it was almost 10.00am and no one had had breakfast.  Instead of the usual toast or porridge, the kids asked for something special.  Three cheers for pikelets went up and so I had a shower, got dressed and headed down to the kitchen.

My trusty helper Buster was by my side tipping the ingredients into the bowl and giving them a good whisk.  Today I thought I'd take his cooking skills to the next level and show him how I cook them.  So he could see, I stood him on a chair next to me at the stove top and I showed him when the pikelets start to bubble they are ready to flip and cook on the other side.  He was keen to have a go at flipping and I said ok.  Some he flipped where great, others he flipped turned into messes - but that's all the joys of learning to cook.  When the last of the pikelets had been flipped I turned off the gas and said he could spatula the cooked the pikelets onto a plate.

It was at this moment my heart stopped.  I still don't understand how it happened because I was right there, but his body fell forward onto the frying pan and he screamed.  I also screamed and grabbed him.  The inside of his wrist had landed heavily on the rim of the hot frying pan we had been using.  I looked at his wrist and panicked.  This wasn't a superficial burn you get from briefly touching something hot, this was deeper.  He was in pain and shock.

I stuck his wrist under the kitchen tap and kept the water running.  Poor Boo just kept crying and saying "I wish I had stayed in bed today".  I was scared and he was scared so I called Triple 000 for an ambulance, which managed to freak him out even more.

The ambulance arrived within about eight minutes and the paramedics took charge.  While the burn was the worst I'd seen, it wasn't the worst they had seen and they put a special compress on him and bandaged him up.  They talked me through how to care for it, the blister it would form, and to look out for signs of infection.  They also said he had burned through a 3-4 layers of skin and it was likely he would have a permanent scar.

When the paramedics left, all the kids wanted was the pikelets.  The poor darlings were starving.  Milly, having shown no concern for Buster at the time of injury, was now his nurse.  She grabbed her favourite pillow and made sure he rested his injured arm on it.  She put pikelets on his plate and put his favourite spreads on them.  Even now two days after the event, she still is looking out for him.

As for me, I'm still carrying the guilt.  Guilt for letting him near a hot fry pan, and guilt for calling emergency services.

Meanwhile, Buster is running around as if it didn't happen.  It's only when his burn starts to sting does he slow down and remember he's meant to be taking it easy.  Wish I had his resilience.

Two days later before redressing.