Hear about burns patient Almir’s journey to recovery after 35% of his body was burnt following a BBQ explosion at home.
Almir, a father of two from Plympton was busy preparing a Sunday roast at home on his webber when he was engulfed by flames after pouring a cap-full of accelerator liquid onto the grill.
His immediate reaction was to stop, drop and roll, but with his clothing soaked in highly flammable liquid, this didn’t quell the fire – so he did the first thing he could think of and removed his clothing.
With his wife using the nearby garden hose to extinguish the flames, Almir stood under the constant stream of cool water until paramedics arrived.
Almir was taken to adult burns service at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, and spent four weeks in hospital receiving treatment to the burns across 35% of his body. His treatment involved multiple surgeries including burns debridement, the application of synthetic skin, receiving skin grafts to 11% of his most severe burns.
Almir says the most surprising part of his recovery has been the world-class care from the multidisciplinary team of health professionals including medical, surgical, nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, dietetics, speech pathology, psychology and social work.
“I’ll use this as a turning point in his life to live a healthier lifestyle. I’ve been educated and included in decision-making about every aspect of my injury and recovery, so I’m empowered to make the right choices about my healing process going forward”, says Almir.
Although the hardest part of his recovery was coming home from hospital to see the accident site at home, Almir has a concrete staged healing process ahead and wants to use his story to warn against the dangers of accelerants on an open flame, and urges others to safe guard the home by checking fittings and expiration dates for gas bottle and liquids.
June is National Burns Awareness month, and to find out more about burns awareness visit the following websites.
– Australia & New Zealand Burns Association
