Mum shares vital video after son's 'terrifying' injury: 'This will save your child's life'
The former nurse shared how she saved her son's life with a simple technique that every parent should know.
A former nurse has shared a lifesaving tip that allowed her 18-month-old son to recover from "significant burns" with no scars.
Being "astonished" with the "lack of knowledge" around burns — the most common being from tea, coffee and two minutes noodles — former nurse Beki Giunta shared the technique to potentially "save your child's life".
"My little boy pulled my hot tea — pure boiling water, no milk — down on him. I was standing right next to him," the Queensland woman said in the TikTok.
"His whole face, his neck, his torso, his stomach was bright red. It was terrifying."
Run cool running water on burn for 20 minutes
She urged people to first call an ambulance, take all the clothes off to prevent heat from being trapped in — unless the clothes are stuck to the skin — and get under cold running water for 20 minutes.
"They’re (the child is) going to be screaming, they’re going to be crying, but you will save their life, you will save them a world of pain. Not only does this aid in stopping the burn, this aids with the pain as well," she said in the video.
It's a course of action echoed by health professionals and is supported by advice given on the Australian government's healthdirect pages.
"My little boy was beside himself. I had to sing twinkle little star while I was sobbing, holding him in the shower just running cold water over his burn.
She said in the comments that if you don't do this, "the skin will continue to burn, leading to swelling, dehydration, tissue death and damage, skin grafting, serious pain ect".
As a result her son did not have to undergo surgery or head to the burns unit, which the former nurse claims would have "100 per cent happened" if she had not run him under cold water in the shower.
"If I didn’t do that my baby would have been so scarred and now, he doesn’t even have a mark on him. These were significant burns," she said.
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Parents thank former nurse for 'lifesaving' advice
The video from Monday has now garnered more than three million views, with many parents thanking Ms Giunta for the important tip.
"Thank you for this!! My 18m old got a 3rd degree burn from a curling iron last summer and we just rushed her to the hospital. I wish we knew what to do," one person commented.
"This! My 18-month-old open handed touched the glass door of the fire at his grandparents house. 20 mins cold water and a trip to the hospital — no scarring!" another said.
Others also asked what to do if the ambulance arrives before the 20-minutes is up, to which which she said that paramedics would definitely take that into account, as "the active cooling period is the most crucial part of burns first aid".
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