to think that this was handled all wrong? (Hot water burn)

[MosesLee]

Was in a restaurant with my cousin earlier and witnessed a waitress drop a whole mug of hot water (green tea) down a little girl. Of course by accident.

Girl was in agony. Screaming and shaking with a scalded arm. Nobody ran her arm under cold water and they just applied dressings to it.

Someone went over and told them 'you need to run that under cold water for at least 20 minutes before putting any dressings on' - the staff looked as though they ignored her and kept putting dressings on.

I then went over and told them 'she's really right you know you need to get her arm under a cold tap' - I was told no, that the dressings were for burns and a cold tap wouldn't do anything.

Worrying that staff who work with kitchen staff and hot food and water don't know how to treat a burn.

Paramedics turned up eventually and immediately started dousing her in hot water after removing the dressings (very quickly)

Not sure where I'm going with this buy I guess I need to know if IABU in thinking that a burn SHOULD be treated with cold water, and that I wasn't just interfering? They seemed pretty pissed off with me when I went over to suggest this to them. It was with good intent however.

Hope the poor little girl is alright...

Dp has just finished his annual health and safety/first aid course that he has to do through work and yes your right!

Except according him it's cool but not freezing water.

This is basic first aid that everyone should know! It's shocking so many people don't!

Not too long ago people died from septicaemia due to mistreated burns. It’s shocking that some think a ‘dressing’ will do, cold water!!

I'm genuinely shocked that there is people functioning today who don't know this. Cliched but it should be taught in schools, and most certainly if you work in any capacity where hot things are present!

My friend growing up had severe burns from her neck over her chest, shoulder and arm. The mum had dropped a pan of bubbling hot water over her and then ran out the house in a panic to find help, leaving her clothes still burning into her. It was horrendous for her growing up and she was still self conscious as a teen.

I really feel for the little girl and please do take this all the way to the top, that must have been incredibly hard to sit through not being allowed to help.

Bloody awful.

Yes you have to run burns under a cold tap for at least tens minutes.

Hope the little girl is OK.

@VerityJoy
A cup of tea can easily cause scales and does frequently. Many stories of babies being scalded by parents who are drinking hot drinks while breastfeeding/cuddling and the drink gets knocked over or sloshed onto them.

It's highly likely that the water for this cuppa would have come from a water bowser, so it comes out boiling. Have you never had a hot cup of tea/coffee from a cafe and not been able to drink it straight away? Yeah, that's because it's hot enough to burn.

Small scalds hurt, having around 250-300ml of boiling water dropped onto you would be bloody agony, especially worse for a small child who has very little concept of what's happening.

I would contact the restaurant head office to let them know what happened and to clarify if staff members are first aid trained.

verityjoy. WTF ?

"I bet she wasn't in agony"

Yeah because boiling hot water tickles, doesn't it. .

Oh ffs why am I feeding and giving it air time. That's what they thrive on
.

Oh my goodness that poor girl. I might have taken her to the loos and shoved her under cold water, but totally get that it's difficult when it's somebody else's child when others are claiming to be 'in control' of the situation.

Letter to head office, don't list the restaurant hide this

To the mum with the daughter who was camping, who was she camping with? I hope you're complaining to the top too.

Small children can easily be scalded by freshly made hot drinks. And they scald more easily than adults because their skin is thinner.

It’s nonsense to suggest a child in this situation is just crying because of the attention.

Similar happened to my DD in a cafe (also green tea, tipped over her by a customer passing behind her with a tray), and I can assure you it was certainly scalding hot. Luckily it hit her lower back and bum rather than her bare arms or head. I grabbed her, stripped off the wet clothing and hustled her straight to the toilet to get cold water on it. Staff were pretty useless although the manager eventually turned up with some gel stuff.

In the end, DD had one little blistered patch on her bum where I couldn't get the cold water on her fast enough but the rest was just superficial. If I hadn't known what to do it would probably have been a lot worse. Still scares me thinking about what could have happened if it had gone down her arm.

I’d be writing to the restaurant about this.

Health and Safety regulations place a duty on an employer to have first aid provision, including appropriate personnel (such as a member of staff with first aid training), in a workplace.

IIRC they’re not legally obliged to extend the first aid provision to members of the public, but anyone trained in first aid would - or should - know that putting a burn / scald under cold running water is the first thing to do.

Which leads to the conclusion that they’re falling short of their duty to have suitable first aid provision for their employees and are therefore breaching the HSE regulations.

Shocking!!! Was this a branch of a chain restaurant or an independent? Either way I would be sending a written complaint.

There is no obligation to provide first aid to a member of the public. Why is everyone saying this is the restaurant's responsibility? The parents were right there. The first aid treatment their child receives is their responsibility.

There is no obligation to provide first aid to a member of the public

Even so, the restaurant employee’s have demonstrated that they’re unaware of the correct first aid treatment for scalding.

Which raises questions about whether the restaurant is meeting their legal obligations to have suitable first aid provisions for their own employees.

Oh my god! This makes me physically shiver. I hope the family take severe action against the restaurant! - and not because of the incident itself, accidents can and do happen and it's impossible to eliminate all risk. But this was handles so terribly and could leave that poor child with permanent scarring. They need a very tough lesson on the importance of health and safety and first aid training

Actually I wonder if public liability doesn't require them to have a first aider on site and/or a risk assessment.

But anyway- yes. Madness. I remember learning in brownies about putting scalds under cold water and leaving them there

I'm glad somebody else has said that there is no obligation to provide first aid to a member of the public. That's down to the parents. I can't see that there is anything to complain about.

Could the dressings have been special burn dressings used to cool the burn down? My toddler burnt her fingers on the hob a few weeks ago and just wouldn't abide running water on her hands, the hospital gave use wet dressing to cool her fingers down, albeit they did keep changing them up every so often to keep the water fresh and old enough

You're absolutely right - scalds should be held under cold (preferably running) water for at least ten minutes. I was taught this during all the first aid at work and paediatric first aid courses I've done. Good job as my son was scalded recently - I acted on instinct due to my training and got him under the cold water tap within a couple of seconds. I held him there while I phoned an ambulance (much to his distress as he ended up frozen, poor boy!). The end result was him having perfectly normal looking skin by the next day (though it peeled a bit after a few days). Paramedics said if I'd not done this, he would have had blisters at best, permanent scarring/skin grafts etc at worst.

If anyone doubts how serious a scald from hot tea can be for a small child, google will show you many awful images on what can result. A boy in my class at school had terrible scarring all down his arm, due to a cup of tea being spilled on him. Skin grafts can be needed. Children have much thinner skin than adults and will suffer far greater damage from an accident like this.

You are of course right. I spilt a bowl of boiling water on my arm and breast last year. In the pain I somehow missed seeing the breast so poured cold water over my arm for the first twenty minutes or so without doing so on my breast. My arm has no scarring but my breast does.

Forgot to add, when I researched this after my burn the advice now is actually lukewarm/tepid water not cold.

People are idiots! There's a place near us which is notorious for its takeaway cups melting, my friend and I only found out when a cup melted and nearly spilt over our 1 year olds. A while later friend was back getting a coffee and a cup melted all over a little kids leg and the staff were there dabbing it with wet napkins whilst the parent flapped 🙄 my friend went over and chucked the cup of water they bought over down the leg, told them to take her into the back to put the kid in the kitchen sink and call a damn ambulance. She's very authoritative so luckily they listened!

Just wondered OP you said you were doing training in dressings, are you a nurse of some sort?