3rd Degree Burns on a Child: Priesthood blessing THEN 911

[Vex]

The burn injury itself was the only thing that pegged as real for me. The rest of it, no. Certainly not applying oil in the hospital and even the initial story of putting oil on before going to the ER, that idiocy would have been noted by ER staff and in all likelihood gotten the attention of a social worker. I highly doubt they would blog about this if they had a social worker on their case, they would be running a bit scared. Also, the airlift team member posting to the blog seemed contrived to give some credibility to their story.

ETA: That there is this sudden "miraculous" recovery doesn't suprise me in the least as the latest turn in this tall tale.

Do you mean that there was an actual burn injury, or do you mean specifically a third degree burn?

Because I agree there was definitely a burn but there is no way in hell it was 3rd degree to 40% of his body and he's home within a month of almost dying. I also agree that oils never touched him in the hospital. Even if there were one nutty nurse or doctor who allowed them to bring in oils and use them, there is no way the whole burn unit would be cool with it and nobody would report it. The biggest danger with burns is infection and there is no such thing as an antiseptic essential oil. If they'd really done that no doubt it would have brought on infection.

I think the burn happened, the parents thought it was the perfect testimonial for Doterra (since apparently the miraculous thing is very popular within that circle) and thus immediately created the blog and weaving a story filled with lies and massive exaggeration. They saw an opportunity and they took it.

But-- I can't be the only one who has a tiny little part of my brain wondering if maybe the essential oils actually helped, right? Feel free to snark away at me, but medical advances have been discovered in stranger ways.

And no, there is now way in hell that essential oils helped in his situation. They're a contaminant when a completely antiseptic environment is required. Maybe some diluted oil on a small burn from the oven might help soothe the pain or even heal it faster, but in any other situation I can't believe it would be anything other than a danger.

[nokidsmom]

Do you mean that there was an actual burn injury, or do you mean specifically a third degree burn?

Because I agree there was definitely a burn but there is no way in hell it was 3rd degree to 40% of his body and he's home within a month of almost dying. I also agree that oils never touched him in the hospital. Even if there were one nutty nurse or doctor who allowed them to bring in oils and use them, there is no way the whole burn unit would be cool with it and nobody would report it. The biggest danger with burns is infection and there is no such thing as an antiseptic essential oil. If they'd really done that no doubt it would have brought on infection.

I think the burn happened, the parents thought it was the perfect testimonial for Doterra (since apparently the miraculous thing is very popular within that circle) and thus immediately created the blog and weaving a story filled with lies and massive exaggeration. They saw an opportunity and they took it.

And no, there is now way in hell that essential oils helped in his situation. They're a contaminant when a completely antiseptic environment is required. Maybe some diluted oil on a small burn from the oven might help soothe the pain or even heal it faster, but in any other situation I can't believe it would be anything other than a danger.

@Vex, actual burn injury but no third degree and over 40%. No way.

I also agree with that the parents decided to use this burn situation to plug their essential oils and yes, they are massively exaggerating / lying.

@Mama Mia: Agree that applying a small amount of some diluted oil or oil based ointment to a small burn can help with healing or pain, but to any burns bad enough to require medical attention it's a completely different case. There's no way oils will be used or allowed. Burns mean your body is very vulnerable to infection and anything touching that burn must be completely sterile which oils are not.

[polecat]

I am 99% sure that this is in someway grossly exaggerated - perhaps not even intentionally, initial estimates of severity could have been off - and/ or a scam.

But-- I can't be the only one who has a tiny little part of my brain wondering if maybe the essential oils actually helped, right? Feel free to snark away at me, but medical advances have been discovered in stranger ways.

Not snarking at you, but no, I don't believe that EOs had anything to do with "curing" 3rd degree burns. I'm not at all anti-EO and have used them for various purposes around the house, but they cannot and will not heal a burn that severe and are more likely to do far more harm than any good.

[Mama Mia]

Not snarking at you, but no, I don't believe that EOs had anything to do with "curing" 3rd degree burns. I'm not at all anti-EO and have used them for various purposes around the house, but they cannot and will not heal a burn that severe and are more likely to do far more harm than any good.

Oh I know. Like I said I'm 99% sure it's all greatly exaggerated at best! and an outright scam at worst --- but a little part of my brain always goes back to learning in school how penicillin was discovered and how unlikely to be helpful that seemed to people at the time. It was almost 20 years after it was discovered that it was first used in a group of injured people and shown to be successful-- interestingly enough to prevent and cure infections among a group of people who had burned in a fire.

[DGayle]

This story is going around privately on Facebook, again, with the mommyish link. A FB friend says "I have been to a doTERRA party and they love telling of miraculous things. I had to check the date in story because I was told a very similar story at a party I went to last year. bad burn, presidential level family member was healed wth oils."

Lends a little credence to the idea of a hoax, doesn't it?

I think getting to the presidential level makes parents stupid or something. What are the chances more than one top-level family would have such bad burns?

[DGayle]

It is strange. But they seem to be real people with real life family and friends. I don't see how they could get away with it.

People have pulled stranger scams on their own family and friends. :(

[Mama Mia]

People have pulled stranger scams on their own family and friends. :(

Now that is very true. It's actually mind boggling some of the very involved, intricate scams people can pull off nowdays. You would think that all the social media and instant access to what everyone you have ever met in your entire life is doing at any given moment would make it impossible, but it seems to have just amped up the scam level.

[Curious]

So, the Ramen story up-thread where essential oils seemed to help seems true to me because the oils were applied after the initial burn was cared for as a way to help the skin heal. That seems reasonable.

But I just can't logically buy that putting oil on a third degree burn as first aid could possibly help it. If they had talked about oil as part of the healing process like Ramen-mom did, I might buy it. But I just can't. It doesn't make any logical sense.

EDIT: If it had healed that quickly, it would be a pretty big medical breakthrough, too. You'd think it would be in mainstream news.

I think the ramen Mom's story could be true. It takes a LONG time for the skin to heal all the way after a bad burn. As I said, you can still kind of see where my burn was and it's been several months now. When the blisters went away the skin underneath was really pink/tender/new (obviously). It was different than say when a scab comes off and you have new skin. So I could see how putting oils or aloe or something on it would help heal it faster.

I'm still calling BS on the other story mostly because of the risk of infection. We were SO SO careful with mine. NOTHING touched it that wasn't sterile and it still got infected within 3-4 days.

[Curious]

Regarding the % of body burned. There is a specific formula for this. I can see how this could easily be exaggerated.

It's something like each arm/leg is 9%, chest/back is 18%, hands/feet are x% (I'm pulling these %'s out of my ass, btw).

So if he had burns over several areas of his body, they might say it was 40% of his body, but it wasn't really 40% of his body, if that makes sense.

Edit to add: hey I remembered the %'s right!

here is a diagram

[Mama Mia]

Thank you for the chart Curious, it's very helpful, and makes much more sense when people are talking about percentages. Also I know the kid who was burned was a teen, not a child, but I wonder if his young age has anything to do with how rapidly he is healing?

I know the family friends toddler who had his face, hand and chest badly burned looked in the initial photos like he would be horribly, permanently, scarred. I don't recall how long he was in the hospital but in a photo taken about 8 -10 months later you couldn't see any scarringg except for one small spot on the hand.

[JMarie]

I am 99% sure that this is in someway grossly exaggerated - perhaps not even intentionally, initial estimates of severity could have been off - and/ or a scam.

But-- I can't be the only one who has a tiny little part of my brain wondering if maybe the essential oils actually helped, right? Feel free to snark away at me, but medical advances have been discovered in stranger ways.

While I love to peruse the blogs that start out "I had seen five specialists and was taking thirteen medicines and kept getting worse and my church friend gave me a bottle of WD-40 and I rubbed it in my belly button and a week later I had a perfectly normal MRI," I think there *might* be a kernel of truth in alternative medicine. Many people have adverse reactions to prescription and OTC medicine, and sometimes that adverse reaction is death. No one medicine can completely cure or manage the patients with a certain condition (no one insulin gives perfect blood glucose readings for every single diabetic, for example). I have a hard time believing the blogs that brag about eliminating every prescription and OTC medicine for a collection of tiny bottles, but on the other hand, Western medicine isn't perfect. Native American and Chinese medicine both utilize plants, and both predate Western medicine. Products we already use are plant based: Ben-Gay (wintergreen), Vicks VapoRub (eucalyptus), Capsaicin cream (cayenne pepper); they just don't have a newly-discovered fervent following.

[trailmix2014]

I don't see how it's possible. A young boy at my church has 3rd degree burns over 35% of his body. He was in the hospital for over 2 months, had several operations, skin grafts, etc. He just went home a few days ago. And he won't be going around people for a while.

It's sick that people would make up such a horrible story.

[bionicmlle]

I just posted this on the latest neinie page but thought it might go better here....

Nienie is going to be keynote speaker at doTERRA conference next week: doterra.com/convention/en/#/agenda/

Interesting on many levels....

[DGayle]

I'm still head-desking. I wish these idiots would listen to doctors and leave the homeopathy to people who understand its limits and won't claim miracles to make money.

[LaLele]

I had been periodically going back to check on the status of this family, and found that Andy Goddard has closed his fb page. How is he going to shill his snake oil without reaching the unoiled masses?

[salex]

I had been periodically going back to check on the status of this family, and found that Andy Goddard has closed his fb page. How is he going to shill his snake oil without reaching the unoiled masses?

I just popped out and it seemed open and public. (I hadn't been there before)

Lots of details about surgeries his son is having, once you get past the tons and tons of birthday wishes.

[SunnyAndrsn]

I was the foster mom for an 8-ish year old child post burn. For comparison, his burns were calculated using the rule of 9's (pictured above) at close to 50%.

-Much of his hands (several joints had growth plates affected, and he lost several nails permanently),

-his arms from the elbows up,

-his entire torso-chest and back-to his waist,

-the front of his neck, extending across his chin up to but not including his lips, and part of his ears was burned.

From that experience, I to think it's likely that this child had had a combination of 2nd and 3rd degree burns at close to 40% of his body. I think it's a combo because of how fast he was home, as compared to my little guy. I think the essential oil stuff is BS. No way in hell did the hospital let this happen.

My foster son was hospitalized for three months, was home for three weeks with his bio family, and was the re-hospitalized for contractures--just like this kid was. The difference was that my kiddo wasn't getting proper care with PT/OT to keep those maturing scars stretched, which resulted in the need for more surgery and grafts, and resulted in me becoming his foster mom for after care. His mom just didn't understand the importance of the splints and face mask.

He wore one splint at night that kept his arms extended Crucifixion style, and one for the day that kept his arms out Frankenstein style. He had to go to school like this.

The amount of care required is daunting and exhausting. We had custom made day splints and night splints to keep the skin under his arms stretching 24/7. He was on a LOT of medications, including strong pain meds. I had to learn how to do wound care, lots of laundry, and keep the shower/tub very clean to prevent infection. In addition, he had a custom face splint to help keep the skin on his neck stretched to help with range of motion, and it was a flat plastic to help mold the scares for the best possible physical appearance.

I was told that it takes a year for scars like this to be fully mature. In the meantime, daily PT/OT was needed. Our schedule was somthing like this:

1. Up at 6am for stretching, usually done while watching Sponge Bob.

2. Breakfast at about 7:30

3. School by 8:15

4. Pick up at 12:30, pre-medicate for therapy

5. PT/OT from 1-4:30

6. Supper and bath, we'd try to get homework done during PT/OT breaks

7. Stretching in front of the TV after the bath. Bath had to happen daily because the healing skin is very fragile, needs tons of moisturizer. Once all the open areas were closed--and after 4 months, there were still open areas--he was measured for the jobst garments. It's a PITA to get these on, 10x worse than TED hose.

8. Night splints on and bedtime. Once he achieved enough range of motion, he would sleep in Buck's traction.

The fact that this boy needed surgery again for scar release is concerning to me that his PT/OT regimen was followed properly. I hope not, and hope that he was just unlucky and/or it was something Doterra didn't have an oil for.

I think all the stuff they said about the essential oils used as an inpatient were BS. Just wanted to share my experiences for comparison and if anyone has questions, I'd be glad to answer them. I went to nursing school after taking care of this child.

[ViolaSebastian]

Bless you, Sunny. We need more foster parents like you.