A teenager severely burned in playing with fire

Photo special collaboration, Samuel Blais-Gauthier
Francis Langevin was injured in the third degree on 35 % of his body. The injuries have left traces on the top of the body.

Samuel Blais-Gauthier

Sunday, 16 July 2017 20:42

UPDATE
Sunday, 16 July 2017 20:42

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GATINEAU | A boy of 12 years old severely burned when his cousin and his half-brother playing with fire launches a vibrant message of prevention, he who must cope with chronic pain and constant.

On the 28th of April last, Francis Langevin has suffered serious burns that will mark his life forever. His half-brother and his cousin had made torches by hand, using scraps of wood and old clothes, and playing with fire in a garage in Val-Des-Monts, in Outaouais. But they decided to push the experience further and they used an accelerant alcohol-based.

Curious, the victim entered the room when an explosion occurred.

Photo courtesy

During his hospitalization, the boy of 12 years has been plunged into a medically induced coma for 13 days.

The teenager has suffered injuries in the third degree on 35 % of his body. It had to be put in a medically induced coma for 13 days. The injuries have left traces may be indelible on the top of his body. Now he has to wear special clothing, a support for the neck and what is called a chin rest, a kind of helmet which supports the jaw.

“My hands have caught on fire. I was running everywhere and I didn’t know what to do. I saw the skin of my hands that hung down, ” says the boy.

Prevention

In spite of all his scars that hurt, Francis Langevin think about the other. He wishes his bad luck could prevent further tragedies.

He does not to his half-brother and his cousin.

“I’m not angry. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But I have to say that this was not smart on their part. I decided to speak for people to understand that it must be very very careful with fire. I want to prevent other people find themselves in my situation, ” he says.

Afraid of the secondary

Francis Langevin must be secondary, if all goes well, in September. He feared the gaze of the other.

“I really didn’t want to wear my chin strap to the school, as I am afraid of bullying. I’m afraid that people will laugh at me, ” he says.

The victim was struggling to hold a pencil, and even to open a door, because her hands had been charred. The simple fact of putting on a sweater, make him suffer, ” he says.

They should regularly undergo sessions of stretching with a therapist to work on the elasticity of the skin so that the wounds heal better and the tissues do not congeal. Many minutes who are “very painful,” he says. He has two years of treatments.

“At the beginning, I was told that I was going to have scars and I was not comfortable. But I was then told that if I did my exercises it was going to from in part. It reassured me. “

During the passage of the Newspaper in his hospital room, in Gatineau, while he was in the middle of treatment, Francis Langevin has taken a step further in his remission.

“Look, mom ! I managed to move my thumb up to my little finger, ” he explained. It was the first time since the accident.