Child scalds himself on 50% of body after overturning pail with hot water

A boy of one year and a half from Calarasi district was admitted to the National Clinical Hospital “Emilian Cotaga” in Chisinau with scalds on 50% of the body. He received them when he overturned a bucket with hot water. The tragedy could have been avoided if the parents hadn’t left the pail on the floor, the hospital’s surgeon Angela Damian has told Info-Prim Neo. According to the doctor, over the last two weeks this is the third serious case of the kind that involves children younger than 5. The accident happened at home in one afternoon when the child’s mother took the pail from the stove and put it on the floor. The child crawled up to the bucket, seized it and overturned it. There were several children in the house at that moment and the little boy remained unsupervised for a while. He was hospitalized in a serious condition. In several days the doctors will decide whether to operate the child or not. The doctor called on the parents to take all the measures needed to protect their children from scalds and burns. “Many tragedies may have been avoided if the parents had obeyed the simple rule of keeping the containers with hot liquids far from children,” said Angela Damian. She also said that the number of cases of children suffering injuries increases in winter as the people heat the houses by different methods. She stressed that when a child suffers scalds, the parents should wash him with water and call an ambulance, without taking other measures to relieve the pain.