Amelia 

What should have been a fun family fireworks night at home, turned into a medical emergency when young Amelia was hit by a burning firework. Here, her mum tells us more.

“It was New Year’s Eve, and we went to celebrate with our friends and their children. We decided to let off some fireworks in the garden like we do every year, and we all went outside to watch them. Everyone was having a good time.

“Suddenly, one of the fireworks fell over and hit Amelia’s hand, setting fire to the teddy she was holding, which then went up in flames. Amelia started screaming and was then hit a second time by another flare in her chest. Amelia’s dad put the flames out with his hands and rushed her to the outside tap.

“The flames from the firework were so high that they singed Amelia’s eyelashes and fringe, and her face was completely covered in soot. Luckily, because Amelia’s dad had acted so quickly the burns on her chest and neck were minimal, but the burn on her wrist was severe.

“The flames burnt holes all over Amelia’s clothes. I can remember my oldest daughter Lucy running over to me screaming, “Amelia is on fire!”. The fear on her face was terrifying. Amelia was terrified, in shock and shaking. After the flames had gone, my husband called an ambulance while we wrapped cling film around Amelia’s burns and stayed with her until the ambulance arrived.

“Everyone was panicking and screaming. After about 10 minutes the ambulance arrived and took Amelia to hospital. We had to leave Lucy [Amelia’s sister], who was very distressed, with a friend as they wouldn’t allow her in the ambulance. I can remember seeing fireworks as we were driving to the hospital and feeling physically sick.

“When we arrived at the hospital, the nurses and doctors cleaned Amelia's burns. Amelia was crying out for them to stop and asked us why we wouldn’t tell them to stop. We reassured her as best as we could, but this was very traumatic for Amelia and for us to see our little girl in so much pain. The doctor was worried about Amelia’s breathing with the firework hitting her neck, so monitored this carefully and gave her morphine.

“We can't describe how awful this was, and if we knew how dangerous fireworks can be we would have never taken our family to a fireworks display. Amelia was in hospital for three days, and after they discharged her, she had follow-up appointments every two days for about eight weeks. After this, we had weekly appointments with a burns specialist and occupational therapists, daily dressing changes and we had to soak Amelia’s burns in water to clean them. This was a horrific thing to do but completely necessary to help her heal. Amelia obviously was in a lot of pain, so she had to take regular medication to reduce this.

"Amelia had two weeks off school but was suffering from anxiety. She was then diagnosed with post-traumatic stress due to the accident. Amelia regularly had night terrors about the house setting on fire or getting hit by a firework and was scared of any type of fire or loud noises. Amelia received 12 weeks of psychological support. With Lucy seeing her little sister on fire she developed anxiety and also had psychological support.

“Once the burns had healed over, Amelia had to wear a compression band, as the scarring was raised and very red. She wore this for 10 months after her injury. During this time, we were told that she might need a skin graft as the burn on her wrist was very deep. Luckily Amelia has super healing skin and we were all over the moon this didn’t need to happen.

“Our sole purpose in sharing our tragic event is to try and raise awareness about how dangerous fireworks can be and the risks involved, particularly the risks when having them at home. If one person reads this and thinks twice about fireworks or takes more safety measures when doing them, it could be one less person going through a similar experience and so makes sharing this so worth it.

“We couldn't protect Amelia from the pain she went through and the fears she developed; this hurt us as parents just as much as seeing our child getting hit by a firework.”