Health Crisis #2 Summertime 2012

We have done the zoo often this summer. This trip tops them all.

 

We were planning to pick up my Mom and brothers on the way to meet friends at the zoo. When I went to start the car I found out that our battery was dead. We weren't going anywhere in that van. Luckily my parents have a battery charger for cars, so my mom was able to bring it over and we plugged my van in for the day. We rode down with my mom and arrived late but fine. While unloading the stroller and bags, Kesler suddenly started crying hysterically. We saw that he had been trying to climb into the trunk of the van and had touched his leg on the exhaust pipe. We couldn't tell how bad it was, but I guessed that it had been on there for a few seconds before he realized he needed to pull it off.

 

First aid-wise we were pretty unprepared for a burn and the zoo is 40 minutes from home. We carried him crying into the zoo in hopes that they would have a first aid station. Of course they didn't have anything useful. No kids or baby Tylenol (even in the gift shop), no aloe vera, no ice pack, just ice from the concession stand. Poor Kesler wouldn't let anyone get near his leg and there was a purple line forming on his shin.

 

Thankfully we did meet up with our friends who were able to take Easton and my brothers with them to see the zoo. My mom and I were able to attend to Kesler. We forced him to put ice on it and the zoo employees tried to track down an EMT. My mom located some baby Tylenol from another Mom and we got that down him.

 

I felt so bad for him and just was praying that it wasn't too serious. When the EMT finally hiked in from the back of the zoo, I wasn't impressed with him. He found some burn gel that had pain reliever in it which helped almost instantly, but then he didn't even offer to bandage it up. I realized it would be helpful to leave it open to the air, but that gel wouldn't have lasted two minutes on his leg without a bandage.

 

 

 

The women who helped us gave him a polar bear and he calmed down as the medicines started working. Poor guy was so sad!

 

 

Mom and I took him to see a few animals while we waited for everyone else. He perked up a little and then we headed home. We stopped at the drug store to find more burn cream and gauze as well. I wish we had taken him in to see a doctor, but I didn't realize how bad the burn was at the time. Looking back on it, it was definitely a third degree burn. It took a long time to heal and he'll have a scar for a long time too. Poor Kesler.