Work experience ‘freak accident’ leaves Aussie teen with horrific burns
Codi Walmsley, 15, has extensive bandaging over his body now to protect his burns.
A young teenager on a work experience stint has suffered severe burns after an "explosion" at a mechanic's workshop caused hot oil to shoot towards his face and hands last week.
It was only Codi Walmsley's third day on the job last Wednesday when the 15-year-old removed a radiator hose from a car, and the oil started to shoot out in the Hamilton workshop in Victoria.
"The hot radiator fluid burned and scolded him as it came out," his aunty Brook Walmsley told Yahoo News. "He put his hands up over his face to protect it, which is why his hands are so substantially bad... it was a freak accident."
After his colleagues rushed to his aid and splashed cold water onto his skin to minimise the burns, Codi was rushed to a local hospital before he was medically airlifted to the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne where he immediately received surgery.
Teenager's body covered in bandages to help burns heal
After being in an induced coma in the intensive care unit for several days, Codi is now conscious and "still himself" but has a long and uncertain recovery ahead of him.
"He'll have to go in for skin grafts on Thursday and we'll need to see how he's healed. It's a little too early to tell how things will turn out." Brooke said, explaining half of his body is covered in bandages.
"They've put like a cellophane on his skin to help with the burns, and then they've put another layer over it, like a mask, and then they've got the bandages on top too."
Now facing the prospect of spending Christmas in hospital, the family are desperately trying to remain positive while they have no idea what long-term impacts Codi will face — creating a GoFundMe to assist with the cost of travelling to Melbourne to be with him.
"It's a pretty testing time for the whole family," Brooke said.
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