Haydn

Haydn was 44 when he sustained chemical facial burns when he was unblocking a sink. At the hospital he used a medical eye wash to ensure there were no chemicals in his eyes. Haydn believes acting confidently in social situations made it easier to interact with people.

Haydn was unblocking a sink at his home when a sudden noise caused him to jolt and accidentally splash chemicals onto his face. He immediately ran into the bathroom and began splashing cold water onto his face, before phoning his wife who took him to the local hospital.

Haydn was concerned he may had damaged his eyes and his eyesight would be affected. At the hospital his eyes were cleaned with a medical eyewash to ensure there were no chemical traces in his eyes. Luckily, Haydn’s eyesight was not affected by the chemical burn.

For 6 weeks whilst his burns were healing, Haydn attended frequent hospital appointments where doctors would assess and clean his burns. After 6 weeks he asked the doctor if he was ready to be discharged to which the doctor agreed. Haydn says he continued to care for his skin at home by moisturising on a regular basis.

Whilst his skin was healing, Haydn was concerned about what his scars may look like in the future and whether people would judge him based on his appearance. At times Haydn would feel self-conscious about his scars and would try to hide them by wearing sunglasses. He tried to maintain a positive attitude by thinking “if I am left with a scar, then a scar is not the end of the world”, and by trying to stay relaxed and confident in social situations. If somebody asked him about his burn, Haydn would answer honestly and appreciated having the opportunity to fully explain his accident to someone, instead of them judging him.

Haydn’s advice to other people who have had a burn injury is to try and stay positive.

 

As well as wearing sunglasses to cover his burn in the early stages of recovery, Haydn found that projecting confidence actually made him feel more confident in social situations.

Age at interview 46

I think that it would just meant that I’d have been a little bit more, or a little bit less relaxed. I would have had to have put some energy into countering, into trying to come across as more, relaxed and more positive and yeah, I think, as I mentioned earlier, that was how I coped, by trying to stay relaxed and positive and trying to put that across. I think it took a bit of effort to do that. So, if I was wearing the sunglasses maybe I didn’t need to put quite so much effort into doing that.

So I think that’s maybe a lesson that I learnt, or something that I learnt and maybe I used it with this as well in terms of “Right, ok, again, I’ve got something on my face that I don’t want to be there, let’s up the confidence level that I’m sort of…” portraying is the wrong word but, you know what I’m saying, sort of putting across.

Yeah for some reason it always stuck in my mind that that’s what I did at that time, so, yeah, it’s obviously, the fact that I still remember it now, it’s always been in my mind and, like you say, chucked in that mental toolkit of “Ok, if there’s something about my appearance that I don’t like just up the confidence level and that should counter it”.

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It was important to Haydn that his friends treated him the same as they did before he was burnt.

Age at interview 46

I think the important thing was that the friends were themselves with me and treated me in the way that they would normally treat me. If they’d normally laugh at me for something, then fine, carry on doing that for this. If you’d normally be sort of a really understanding and thoughtful person then, if you laugh at me now then it’s going to seem a bit wrong. But as long as you’re consistent with how you’ve been with me before, I think that was what was important.

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Haydn, who had a chemical burn when cleaning a drain, hopes others might learn from what happened to him if they are ever in the same situation.

Age at interview 46

Ok, so I was unblocking a sink with a very nasty chemical which was sort of 90-something percent sulphuric acid, and it just comes in a sort of a regular bottle once you’ve opened the lid, which I think is child-proof, it’s just a sort of a big opening at the top of it. So, I was pouring this chemical down the sink and after I’d finished pouring I was sort of holding it in my hand upright like that and nothing happened immediately, and then after five or six seconds, I wasn’t expecting it, all of a sudden there was this big gurgling noise from the sink. And, because I wasn’t expecting this loud noise from the sink I kind of jumped back a bit, like that, and as I jumped back, and I was holding the bottle still, this chemical splashed onto me. And, it splashed onto my face, it splashed onto my clothes, my t-shirt, my shorts.

And, also it’s a warning to other people as well. If you’re ever going to be doing this, bear in mind that, if you’re unblocking a sink nothing might happen for the first few seconds, so don’t be … don’t be sort of shocked when all of a sudden there’s a bit gurgling noise. Ideally, pour it down the sink, put the bottle straight down afterwards.

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Haydn didn’t want people to feel sorry for him.

Age at interview 46

I think that the scar made me feel that, obviously, my appearance had been affected and I was going to be looked at differently, in terms of my appearance. Apart from that, how I dressed, I don’t think I’ve changed in how I, no I haven’t, I haven’t changed in how I dress and level of smartness or anything like that. Yeah, it was just really having that awareness that people would look at me differently while I had the scar.

Am I going to have this scar for the rest of my life? Is it something that’s always going to be with me? I suppose worrying about people looking at me and judging me – I always hate to be judged and felt sorry for. Are people going to look at me and feel sorry for me and that? Yeah, that would have been my concern at the time.

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