learn~ the hard way

もうひとつWaikato Timesから。大変な事故でしたが、今となるといい教訓だったようです。（UG）
Lesson learned the hard way
By BELINDA FEEK - Waikato Times Last updated 05:00 28/08/2010
Te Awamutu boy Jack Livingstone is all smiles as he sprints his way to the finish line of his school's cross-country. He crosses the line fourth in the junior race at St Patrick's Catholic School on Tuesday.
It's a happy sight for his mum, Louise, who three years earlier could only watch in horror as he ran towards her with his clothing on fire, early one Sunday morning in July.
"All I saw was him running towards me on fire," Mrs Livingstone recalled this week.
Jack, now aged 6 and the youngest of four children, was in his flannelette pyjamas after getting up early with his sisters and brother to watch TV, sitting by the gas fire.
The pyjamas got too hot and caught fire, causing burns to his back and upper arm – 15 per cent of his body. In some places his nerves were exposed.
Jack had to go through a long recovery process, which involved wearing a pressure suit, having skin grafts and numerous hospital visits.
And while his parents will not forget those events, neither has Jack himself, who learned a tough lesson about heater safety and the "one metre from the heater" rule.
"No, he knows, he's aware," Mrs Livingstone said. "He still remembers being burnt and he still talks about it. He's still aware that he can't sit right on the ledge by the fire."
The incident, which at the time was the fourth incident of a child's pyjamas catching fire between 2004 and 2007, sparked a government review on the safety labels on clothing.
Since May 2009, retailers who fail to display the new safety warning codes – white, orange or red – can now face prosecution from the Commerce Commission.
Mrs Livingstone was pleased with the new warnings, saying the old warnings were ambiguous and not clear.
"The flame is at the back of the fire and we think that he sat there for too long and the heat ignited the pyjamas."
During his recovery a temporary skin was trialled to help promote skin growth but failed, so skin grafts were taken from Jack's leg and placed on the affected area.
He then wore a pressure suit for the following two years to minimise scarring.
"We visited hospital every six to eight weeks and in total had something close to maybe 20 pressure suits as he's grown."
That was then reduced to a pressure sleeve on his bicep.
The next step in his recovery was plastic surgery but the couple decided to wait until Jack was a bit older, about 10, to allow for his growth.
The process would have been an arduous ask of a six-year-old because it would have taken nine months and he wouldn't be able to sleep on his back.
"It's pretty full-on but we've just put it on hold until he gets a bit older."
As for now, Jack is just like any other six-year-old kid; loves rugby, swimming and is "dinosaur mad".
"He doesn't even know it's there, he has to have his back in front of the mirror to see it."
The scars on his butt and thigh, from where skin grafts were taken, and across his shoulder blade and tricep area, have also faded away.
"It hasn't stopped him from doing anything.
"We might have to do some things in the future, depending on how big he gets, but he's happy.
"He's the youngest of four and they are all very active which means the odd injury, and he's the one in the family that if something is going to happen to someone it will happen to him. But he's got a good attitude, he has to, to survive in a family of four."
http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/4071058/Lesson-learned-the-hard-way