SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The kitchen is the most common place in the home to sustain burn injuries, but 11-year-old Fairfield sixth grader Brayden Melgar suffered serious burns last November while trying to light the charcoal grill outside.
“It just exploded,” Brayden said.
His father, Carlos Melgar, said he was inside preparing the meat when he heard screams.
“He came into the house on fire,” Carlos said.
By the time his family put him out, Brayden suffered serious burns on his face, fingers, hands and arms.
Now, he spends his days at the Shriners Children’s Hospital in Sacramento thinking about the things he can’t wait to get back to doing again, like fishing, swimming and holding a videogame controller.
Brayden is one of the approximately 486,000 people to suffer a burn injury needing medical attention each year, according to numbers from the CDC.
February 4-10, 2024, is National Burn Awareness Week, a time set aside each year for organizations and educators to unite in sharing a common burn awareness and prevention message.
It was also an occasion for the Melgars to reflect on their experience.
“This kind of accident can happen to anybody,” Carlos said. “I could have lost him.”
His family was among the hundreds to seek burn care at Shriner Children’s Hospital in Sacramento, where Dr. Tina Palmieri is the Assistant Chief of Burns.
“The best way to have to have your kid grow up and have a great healthy life is to prevent them from sustaining an injury that can impact them the rest of their lives,” Palmieri said.
She suggested making the kitchen a “kid free” zone when adults are cooking, turning the handles on pots and pans towards the back of the stovetop, away from kids’ reach, use the back stovetop burners when possible, and ensuring cords for rice cookers, toasters and other electric appliances are out of reach.
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