by Dana Givens
Child Life Specialist

Everyone knows that a child can be at your side one minute and gone with the blink of an eye. Within seconds a child can have a serious accident. Children with burns are something familiar to me at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital. Burn patients range in age from 5 months to 16 years old. Some with first degree burns, (similar to a sun burn) others with second degree burns (which affect the first and second layers of the skin, the epidermis and dermis) and third degree burns which go into the deep tissue. Children come in with thermal, electric, and chemical burns. Some of the most frequent causes of the burns that I've seen are from cooking accidents, hot water, irons, chemical spills (from home cleaning agents), curling irons, and firecrackers, to name a few.  

Here at Le Bonheur we work closely with the patients and families in the healing process. I work with a team of nurses, general surgery and plastic surgery doctors, nurse practitioners, nutritionists, physical therapists, unit nurses, social workers, and anesthesiologists to aid in the patients’ recovery. The starlight room is used for dressing changes under light sedation to assess the burns without causing the patient pain.

In the starlight room, patients' burns are examined, cleaned, and dressed with special medication to help the healing process. Sometimes, patients need skin grafts due to the severity of the burns. I work closely with the patients and family to provide preoperative teaching to prepare the patients for the experience in starlight.

As a child life specialist, I have provided distraction and comfort to the patients until they are sedated for the examination process. I am there to support the parents through the dressing changes and encourage them to be a part of the team and ask important questions to be aware of the patients' treatment plan.

The recovery process is not over after discharge. Patients need to be on a high calorie/ high protein diet and make sure to stay out of direct sunlight to make sure the pigment of their skin comes back normally. Direct sunlight can damage new skin and pigment that is returning from a burn.