A South Cariboo girl who got badly burned from an airborne explosion during a science project at home earlier in the year is back home after spending months in Vancouver.
“We gotta go back on the 31st for like a week and we’ll come back on the Wednesday evening so she’s going to miss the first couple of days of school but that’s ok,” says Karen Peterson of her daughter Presley.
Two open wounds that still remained are closed as of about two days ago, which is great because it means they don’t need dressings, says Karen.
“The scars on her legs should fade out in like five months. So, she’s doing really good, amazing.”
Presley’s arms and hands took the worst of it and she has to wear compression sleeves, says Karen, adding that her face is healing well. For Presley, after what happened, she was scared to go back home. So two firefighters went there first, she says.
“They geared up a few days before we came home to walk through our house and did an open flame test throughout the whole house and they videoed it. She watched it and it’s safe.”
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There are two air purifiers and an air conditioner going in her room because it’s important for her not to get too hot, says Karen.
“She still has some nightmares and stuff but she’s doing amazing.”
Presley is a little worried about going back to school, according to Karen, adding that if people stare it may well be because they have compassion for you.
“You can either grow from this experience right and find the triumph in the tragedy, look for the message in the mess or you can allow it to consume you and let it take you into a dark place.
“You are not a victim, you’re a survivor and to just know that it could have been so much worse. She’s super grateful to be alive, she’s super grateful and, you know, she knows that if she hadn’t been wearing glasses, she would be blind.”
It’s important to focus on the positive, says Karen, adding that one of Presley’s friends already slept over.
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“It was great. I’m in my room listening to them laughing and being kids and I’m like ‘it’s almost normal. This is great.’”
Karen is looking at the positive side of things herself. As a mother and daughter, they spent two and a half months in the same room, something that doesn’t happen in anybody’s lifetime, says Karen. You’ll never be with your preteen for two-and-a-half months in the same room, she says.
Presley is not supposed to be exposed to direct sunlight, so they watched a lot of movies, says Karen.
“Now we can look at the beginning of it when it was really hopeless and really scary. When we were in the hospital and had all those burn surgeries, those times seem so far away now. You come out the other side but I think that the most profound thing was that in the beginning few weeks was she was totally like a baby. She was bandaged from head to toe. She could only open and close her eyes. I had to buy baby spoons to feed her because her mouth was so burned and like when she was a baby in real life I wasn’t present because of my alcoholism right? So this was like my do-over to be a present parent and be there for her 100 per cent.”
They’ll make the most of it and are happy to have their own food and cooking again, says Karen.
“Home can really help you heal. Being in your own room, being in your own town and everybody here loves us. This whole community is our home. Vancouver was so good to us and we’re so greatful to all her doctors, her plastics team, everybody that played a part but there’s no place like home.”
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