A devoted dog owner has suffered horrific burns after rescuing his dog from scalding hot water.
Christian Barker was enjoying a cosy night in watching television on the sofa with his beloved Cavapoo, Peaches, when the freak accident occurred.
The hot water bottle he had behind his back to ease sciatica pain exploded suddenly, splitting “like a sack” down the middle.
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Filled with boiling water, terrified Peaches yelped with pain and soiled herself in shock as she was doused in the liquid.
Christian, from Essex, picked up the burned pup and rushed her to the kitchen to soak under cold water, before dashing to the emergency clinic – not realising her was burning himself in the process, and that his were worsening.
He said: “All I was thinking about was Peaches – I just felt so, so guilty that she’d been hurt and in my head I just felt that everything was my fault and that I’d killed the dog.
“About 15-20 minutes into the journey, I began to feel really excruciating pain in my right thigh.
“It had been tingling a bit before that, but in the scrambled way my brain was at the time, I just assumed it was because I was soaking wet.”
Peaches was treated at the emergency Vets Now clinic, where Christian’s wife, Lorraine, had phoned ahead to warn them of the unfolding drama.
Staff took Peaches straight through for urgent burns treatment, by which point Christian’s own injuries were becoming more apparent to him – leaving him “frantically” taking off his clothes that were sticking to his inflamed skin.
Veterinary nurse and first-aider Sophie Watson rushed to Christian’s help and ushered him through to the staff shower room where he was able to get privacy and douse himself with cool water.
Sophie said: “I’ve worked in vet clinics for 25 years and, as a trained first-aider, there have been a few times where I’ve needed to help humans as well as pets.
“But I’ve never been in a situation as critical as this.
“All the way from his chest down his right side, his skin was completely scalded and was very rapidly blistering.
“I phoned 999, but unfortunately there weren’t any ambulances available, so we made arrangements for Christian’s uncle and his wife to take him to accident and emergency.
“Overall, he was in and out of the shower for an hour and a half just trying to contain the injuries as best we could, and all the time he kept asking, ‘How’s Peaches, how’s Peaches?’
“We meet a lot of very devoted owners, but I don’t think I’ve ever met someone quite as visibly attached to their pet as Christian – it was really quite humbling to see how, even though his injuries were much worse than his dog’s, it was the dog he was concerned for, not himself.
“Of course, there were no clothes he could put on – so we had to dress him in one of the blue clinical gowns that we use when operating on a pet.
“Then I arranged for the car to come to our side door so that Christian didn’t have to walk out through our main reception half-dressed.”
While this was going on, Sophie’s colleagues were giving Peaches analgesia and intravenous fluids while continuing to cool her skin.
At Ipswich Hospital, specialist burns staff wrapped Christian’s injuries in layers of cling film before then peeling off the scalded skin.
Christian said: “It was incredibly painful, but I was in safe hands and incredibly grateful for the excellent treatment I received – not to mention the first-class help Peaches got.”
After a night under observation, Peaches was well enough to leave the clinic at 8 am the next day and even ate a little bit of chicken before she went – with her shaved fur showing very extensive burns down her left side.
And Christian got home later that day too, as reported by Need To Know.
He said: “When I saw Peaches I nearly burst into tears – the Vets Now staff had done a brilliant job keeping her alive, but they were very honest with Lorraine that recovery wasn’t guaranteed.
“And after a day or so at home she took a bit of a turn for the worse and didn’t want to drink or eat.
“We had to give her water through a syringe and try, and hand feed her.”
Day by day though, Peaches began to get a little stronger, whilst Christian as well began to get better.
He said: “Our two recoveries have kind of mirrored each other – which feels very fitting.”
Peaches is now back to her normal self – chasing after her ball and back with Christian on the sofa barking at her favourite bit of TV: a dog food advert.
And Christian is back in his full-time carer role, looking after Lorraine, who has rheumatoid arthritis.
Lorraine said: “We’re used to some pretty challenging circumstances in our family – but this really has been very difficult for all of us.
“It happened in October last year, but it’s all very raw still – it feels like it was yesterday.
“After the accident we have thrown out all our hot water bottles, and we’ll never, ever, again have one in the house.
“The one that exploded was one of the long thin ones that a lot of people use for back pain and was almost new, so it’s not like it was ancient and out of date.
“I’m just so grateful to Sophie and her colleagues and always will be – in our hour of need they saved my husband, and they saved my dog.
“I literally do not know what we’d have done if they hadn’t been there to help.”
Sophie, who recently won a Vets Now customer star award for her work with Christian, said: “It was a total team effort and I’m lucky to work with brilliant colleagues.
“I have to say: Peaches is such a cute little character – and she’s very brave too.
“We’re all just so touched that she and Christian have made full recoveries. This job can be a bit of an emotional roller-coaster at times, and a happy outcome like this with such lovely feedback from Christian and Lorraine is something we just treasure as a team.”
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