"Something caught fire, briefly engulfing my..."

Early on Monday morning, 16th April 2018, about 4am, a doctor and a

charge nurse were treating my

daughter Holly for a very painful toe injury. She had dropped

her dinner plate on her toe at about 7pm the previous evening. Her toe

had already been x-rayed and no fracture was detected. The doctor had

concluded that it was the pressure of the blood that had collected in

her toe that was causing the pain, and that lancing it would be the

most effective way to relieve the pain. My daughter was very fearful

about this, but the charge nurse and doctor set about freeze-spraying

her toe to numb it in a brisk, businesslike way (as opposed to a

reassuring or calming way). The doctor then prepared some kind of

electrically heated needle device to do the actual lancing. I saw the

tip start to glow red, then she bent down to apply it, and immediately

a sheet of flame shot up, engulfing my daughter's foot. Instantly

there were bits of floating flaming paper everywhere. Holly shrieked

and pulled her foot out of the nurse's grip and came to my arms. The

doctor and nurse ran around stamping out flaming pieces of paper. They

missed one which was under the desk and had begun to scorch the leg of

the desk, its flame increasing rather than diminishing, until I

pointed it out. The nurse disappeared out of the door and I never saw

him again.

Holly was not injured; she got her foot out of the flame quickly.

I felt betrayed, mostly at having failed Holly, having reassured her

that no harm would come to her and that the doctor knew what she was

doing. I felt very angry, but managed not to express it, for the sake

of not causing further distress to Holly. It was a blow that we had

found no help at a trying and stressful time from the one place I had

felt confident in turning to. I felt abandoned and alone in a hostile

and uncaring world, when all I wanted was help looking after my

daughter in her pain.

The doctor offered fulsome apologies, but as I said before the charge

nurse did not appear, nor did he find the time to send any word. It

did not appear to be a busy time.

A particular Sister did a very good job of engaging with Holly

afterwards, calming and reassuring her and getting her interest in

nursing going. She also apologised extensively, even though she had

not been involved in the incident. I felt she went a good way to

recovering Holly's shattered faith in the hospital. I wish she hadn't

had to.

I sent the above to the PALS service yesterday as suggested and heard nothing back today.