Patrick's 1st degree burns

December 06, 2010

There are really some things that you have to experience so that you won't make the same mistake again.  That's exactly what happened to Patrick on December 5th when he got first degree burns because Stanley's radiator overheated.

We were supposed to go to Greenhills to buy Dana's costume for her Christmas presentation in school.  We were in a hurry because we only had a window of opportunity to get to Greenhills because of the color coding.  We have only traveled about 5 minutes from our house when Patrick said that Stanley was overheating.  I didn't know why it was happening but Patrick said we had to stop or the car will stall in the middle of the road.  So, we parked Stanley over at Savemore Nagtahan which was at least safe and near our house.

Patrick then opened the hood and triggered a release valve (or some thingy) on the radiator cap.  Supposedly this works to release the pent-up steam or vapor in the radiator (or that's my understanding of the contraption).  Well, guess what?  It was faulty and when Patrick opened the radiator cap, Whoosh!! a fountain of water of gigantic proportions shot up and out of Stanley, getting Patrick and the other bystanders wet (it's funny now that I'm writing about it) but not so funny then hehehe

At first, I wasn't worried but then I saw how red Patrick's face and arm had gotten.  He was also trembling and complaining of pain.  So, we got the kids and Mel on a pedicab so they'll get home first.  We then went straight to my aunt's vulcanizing shop to speak with Kuya Daniel, the mechanic, so he can take a look at Stanley.  We left Stanley with him so I could take Patrick to the hospital.

At the UST Emergency room, the doctors checked him out but he got ticked off when they kept saying it was just sunburn :)  Obviously, his burns shouldn't feel so bad if it was just sunburned.  The pain reliever they gave him was taking too long and he was already in tears.  We went home under instructions that if his burns got blisters, he was to proceed immediately back to the ER.  I was surprised that they didn't give him burn ointment at that time, huh..

It was after two days that the blisters appeared.  He didn't even notice them until they started leaking (eww, I know!)  He went back to the ER.  When he tried to remove the cotton the doctors placed over the blister, this was what happened.  The cotton took off a portion of the skin, exposing the flesh underneath it.. uggh.. He had to completely bandage his arm after that!

I guess know he knows better than to open the cap when the car is overheating.. What a painful lesson to learn..