When Frying Catfish Goes Horribly Wrong

I mentioned in my past blog post that my dad was severely burned. This occurred when my dad was preparing to fry up some catfish in an iron skillet. He accidentally placed the pan of boiling oil down on an unstable surface and the pan tipped over, spilling the oil all over the place. To add insult to injury, my dad then slipped on the now oily floor and landed in the scalding oil as well. He had horrible burns all over his body. It was one of the most horrific things I've ever experienced to see my dad suffering so terribly. I'm not sure how he managed it, but he didn't cry out once. I think that I would have been screaming.

We took him to the closest urgent care center who, upon surveying the damage, sent us to the emergency room. Upon walking into the hospital emergency room, the doctor then declared that my dad needed to be transferred to a hospital with a burn care center. The main concern was his left hand. There were second degree burns all the way around all of his fingers. Apparently with that type of burn they worry that the swelling will cut off circulation to the fingers and also that as the skin regrows, it will tighten and cause him to lose mobility in his hand. My poor dad didn't get true relief until we reached that final hospital, almost 5 hrs. later.

While I understand that hospitals can't be equipped to handle all situations, I was very upset with their inability to even tend to a patient with burns. They may not have the all of the burn cremes or specialty doctors and equipment needed to care for a burn patient, but surely they should know to have towels with ice water handy. They were completely incompetent, giving my dad a narcotic instead of percocet like the burn center did. I had to ask again and again for ice packs and ice to help ease the burning pain my dad was experiencing. While he was writhing in pain, some young lab tech came to take blood and decided to take it from the arm that had the severely burned hand. She then scolded my dad for not keeping his arm still and my poor dad ended up with a huge hematoma because of her incompetence. She refused to listen to me and my mother when we tried to explain the situation and it wasn't until the emergency doctor came in and told her to stop, that she finally left my poor father alone. So we left the first hospital with my dad still in pain and now with a huge hematoma on his arm.

I'm not meaning to bash hospitals, doctors or nurses. They spend their lives trying to help others and deserve our respect. However, I do feel that something needs to change. If emergency nurses and doctors aren't going to be trained on how to deal with ALL circumstances. Then they need to more publicly announce what cases they ARE equipped to handle. They should at least know the basics on how to treat certain types of patients to get them into a stable condition until they are able to get to the appropriate facility. The second hospital was farther away, but we could have driven there ourselves and gotten proper care for my dad much more quickly if we had known.

 Thankfully, about 1 1/2 days after my dad's accident, he went to a plastic hand surgeon who gave us the thumbs up for continuing with our plans to travel to North Carolina. A week and a half later my dad was declared (by a stunned surgeon) to be healed. He didn't need to have any surgery at all! I'm just so relieved that my prayers were answered. While my dad still has a long way to go before he'll be fully healed, the danger is out of the way. Such a blessing!


He accidentally placed a pan of boiling oil down on an unstable surface and the pan tipped over, spilling the oil all over the place. To add insult to injury, my dad then slipped on the now oily floor and landed in the scalding oil as well. He had horrible burns all over his body. It was one of the most horrific things I've ever experienced to see my dad suffering so terribly. We took him to the closest urgent care center who, upon surveying the damage, sent us to the emergency room. Upon walking into the hospital emergency room, the doctor then declared that my dad needed to be transferred to a hospital with a burn care center. The main concern was his left hand. There were second degree burns all the way around all of his fingers. Apparently with that type of burn they worry that the swelling will cut off circulation to the fingers and also that as the skin regrows, it will tighten and cause him to lose mobility in his hand. My poor dad didn't get true relief until we reached that final hospital, almost 5 hrs. later. While I understand that hospitals can't be equipped to handle all situations, I was very upset with their inability to even tend to a patient with burns. They may not have the all of the burn cremes or specialty doctors needed to care for a burn patient, but surely they should know to have towels with ice water handy. They were completely incompetent, giving my dad a narcotic instead of percocet like the burn center did. I had to ask again and again for ice packs and ice to help ease the burning pain my dad was experiencing. While he was writhing in pain, some young lab tech came to take blood and decided to take it from the arm that had the severely burned hand. She scolded my dad for not keeping his arm still and my poor dad ended up with a huge hematoma because of her incompetence. She refused to listen to me and my mother when we tried to explain the situation and it wasn't until the emergency doctor came in and told her to stop, that she finally left my poor father alone. So we left the first hospital with my dad still in pain and now with a huge hematoma on his arm. I'm not meaning to bash hospitals, doctors or nurses. They spend their lives trying to help others. However, I do feel that something needs to change. If nurses and doctors aren't going to be trained on how to deal with ALL circumstances. Then they need to more publicly announce what cases they ARE equipped to handle. The second hospital is a farther drive away, but we could have driven there ourselves and gotten proper care for my dad much more quickly if we had known.

Luckily, a day and a half after his accident the plastic hand surgeon gave us the thumbs up to still go on our trip to North Carolina. (we'd been planning this for months) About a week and a half after the accident, a stunned plastic surgeon declared my dad to be healed. No surgery was even necessary! I'd love to say that this was because of our constant care but I feel pretty sure that a higher power had a hand in this miracle. We all feel so blessed! My dad still has awhile before all of his burns will be completely healed, but the danger is gone now. Our prayers have been answered.

Next on the blog post list? Some photos/ paintings from my trip to North Carolina.  Oh, and I promise that the photos will be better than the ones in this post. These were all taken with my phone. (obviously I didn't have time to grab a camera when all of this was happening)