SEATTLE -- It is Burn Awareness Week, and a family who lives just outside Yakima hopes your family can learn from an experience they will live with for the rest of their life.
It was January 16 when four-year-old Derek Delgadillo was in the kitchen with his parents as they made dinner. His dad Frank says everything happened fast when Derek's younger brother Diego tried to reach for boiling water in a crock pot and Derek tried to stop him. Unfortunately the boiling water fell on top of Derek. Airlift Northwest flew him to Harborview.
"He told us he wanted to push the pot forward so baby wouldn't be able to get burned," his dad Frank said. "It came over and it spilled down on his right side, little bit over on his shoulder, down his arm, center of the chest."
The burns now cover 15% of his body, most of them are burns in the 3rd degree. Frank Delgadillo said his kids will no longer be allowed in the kitchen while they are cooking.
"In the kitchen especially one parent's over here and another parent's trying to take care of other things and sometimes we're not fully aware of everything that's going around or happening," Delgadillo said. "If you have something hot, keep it as far away as you can from your children."
This week is "Burn Awareness Week" nationwide. Scald burns are the leading cause of all burn injuries.
"I would say we see kids like Derek hundreds of times a year in this center alone," Harborview burn surgeon Dr. Tam Pham said. "Every year in the United States thousands of kids get burned by scalds."
Dr. Pham said that parents need to take extra precautions while cooking to make sure kids stay away from anything that is hot. He also says they should never be allowed to play with pots or pans.
"If you let your kids play with pots and pans, and then later on you let your kids see them on top of the stove, they might want to go reach for them because they identify it as a toy," Dr. Pham said.
After three weeks in the hospital, the Delgadillos are looking forward to their return to their home outside of Yakima. Now they hope you can learn from their unfortunate lesson as well.
"This is a life experience that obviously I won't ever forget nor will my family, now I just hope no family will ever go through it," Delgadillo said.
