Ten-year-old Isaiah Haugen and his entire family are enjoying this summer much more than last year’s.
It was the Fourth of July, and Abby Huus and her husband had a full house: her brother, in-laws, her daughter’s friend, and her four children.
It was raining on and off, and during each break of rain, they’d all run out to light fireworks.
Sparklers, smoke balls, ground flowers, and more.
Bigger fireworks came out when the skies darkened
It started to get darker, and they had the idea of lighting off bigger fireworks.
Huus’s brother was handed a 10-shot Roman candle.
“I’m not sure if in that moment he was thinking the fuse was up, or if he couldn’t get it turned. I can’t (remember); it happened so fast in that specific moment. The first one went off, and it shot across the street at our neighbor’s house,” said Huus.
“I had my 4-year-old daughter sitting on my lap. I put her in the garage and we all hopped up because at that point the first one went off and it was like Russian roulette – it was spinning,” she added.
The second shot went off.
“I didn’t see where it went, until I had heard him.”
The shot had hit the brick on the front of their house and went down the backside of the chair Isaiah was sitting on, lodged in between the chair and Isaiah’s back.
“It exploded and burnt through the chair,” Huus said. “He came running in, and I remember the smell of flesh. I turned him around and it had burned through his shorts and his t-shirt,” she recalled.
Shock and resilience all in one
Huus’ mother-in-law stayed to cool the burns and comfort Isaiah, while Huus ran to Walmart “and got every single burn item I could find.”
When she got back, 14 minutes had passed and Isaiah was sitting on the recliner, cold washcloth on his back, tablet in hand, acting like nothing had happened.
“He was so resilient and the whole thing was so, so surreal,” she said.
At that point, she and the family determined the best course of action was to monitor his burns and if things took a turn, they’d take him to acute care.
Days later, after caring for the burn “extremely well,” according to Sarah Dorr, a pediatric wound and ostomy nurse practitioner at Sanford Health, Huus decided to take Isaiah in.
“She felt like things were getting worse, so she took him to his pediatrician, who reached out to us right away. I got ahold of our wonderful outpatient sedation center and knew that was the avenue that we were going to go,” said Dorr.
Comprehensive care at The Castle helped Isaiah
The benefit of sedation is that it allows providers the opportunity to clean up the wounds and treat the burns, while the patient feels no pain.
“Our pediatric ICU team provides sedation services for kids for procedures that either cause anxiety or cause pain. We’re able to provide that comfort,” said pediatric intensivist Jody Huber, M.D.
“We got a really good look at things. We got to talk Mom through things and really explain what we were seeing and the kind of trajectory of where we thought the wound was going to go,” according to Dorr.
Dorr saw Isaiah multiple times going forward for treatments. As he progressed in healing, “we reached an area where things kind of stalled.
“And so, once that happened, we talked about the potential of needing to involve our friends in plastic surgery. The beauty of having those people here on campus is they’re just a phone call or a message away and they can look at photos and give us recommendations,” said Dorr.
After the accident happened, Isaiah had a goal of being able to go swimming by the second week of August, when his dad was coming into town from Tennessee.
“His dad came for a visit and came to the clinic,” Dorr said. “The day he came was the day we discharged Isaiah. I said, you know what – you want to go swimming? You guys want to go swimming?
“I have never seen a bigger smile. They all ran out of here and his mom called me, sent us videos of them jumping in the pool and celebrating. She sent me a picture probably two months ago and you can hardly tell the scar is there. And that’s the best part of doing this job,” said Dorr.
Isaiah is rollerblading, swimming, and doing all the summer activities he wants to. His mom’s take-home message for everyone is to be hyperaware of firework safety.
“Fireworks are fun. They’re meant to be fun, but in the blink of an eye it can be a very, very scary situation,” Huus said. “That particular situation could have ended way worse than it did, so we are very blessed. Just be safe.”
Learn more
- Fireworks safety: The do’s and don’ts
- Cuts, scrapes, burns – when first aid isn’t enough
- Keep young children safe while playing outside
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Posted In Children's, Emergency Medicine, Sioux Falls, Specialty Care
