Nevaeh’s Story

What happened?

Mandy describes her daughter Nevaeh as an independent and creative girl who enjoys helping her around the house. But at age 10, Nevaeh was carrying her tower fan back to the laundry when she accidentally dropped it, resulting in the cover cracking and the button pad pushing in. Being helpful in nature, Nevaeh thought she could quickly fix the problem and unscrewed the fan lid and attempted to reassemble the button and put the lid back into place. She then plugged in the device, and when she noticed it did not work, she took the lid off and went to remove the cord from power when her hand made contact with the wires and she was electrocuted. As a result, Nevaeh sustained burns to the tips of half her fingers, and her two index fingers’ knuckle burns blistered. 

Mandy recalls hearing her screams and smelling the burn, and although she had done first aid training years prior, the stress of the accident caused her to go into a flight response, and she was unable to recall what to do. In a panic, she rushed Nevaeh to the Perth Children’s Hospital emergency room for treatment. 

“It was not until we got to the hospital that we were reassured it does not matter if it is an electric burn, it still needs to be placed underwater for as long as possible.”

Mandy

Treatment and recovery journey

Arriving at the emergency room, Nevaeh was treated immediately with nurses applying first aid and bandaging her hands. Due to the electric shock and her burn injury, she spent the night in the hospital and returned home the next day. Nevaeh and Mandy would return to the hospital over the next few days to receive treatment from the burns team, including cleaning and changing bandages.

After a few days, it became evident that Nevaeh would require skin graft surgery on both index fingers and a couple of the tips of her fingers. Unfortunately, the first surgery did not take well due to the complex nature of electrical burns, which affect the skin from the inside out, and she underwent a second surgery that took better.

Once recovered from surgery, Nevaeh started her rehabilitation journey and would see an occupational therapist, physio and the burns team. Mandy recalls that during this time, everyone made Nevaeh feel supported and reassured, which helped her general wellbeing and to keep positive.

Life now

Almost a year after her burn injury, Nevaeh is still on her burns journey and wearing pressure gloves to help her injury heal as she grows. She still has quarterly check-ups with the burns team and will require laser treatments to avoid keloids. Neveah has also participated in burns research and is currently attending a trampoline program designed to promote good mental health and wellbeing after sustaining a burn injury.

Mandy and Nevaeh wanted to share their burns story as a reminder to parents to take the time to talk with children about the dangers of electricity. Mandy also wants to encourage parents to ensure they regularly attend first-aid training and remind the community that electrical burns must be treated like other burns with the 20-to-cool rule.

Nevaeh still has a positive outlook on life and has gotten so used to the gloves that she feels bare without them. Nonetheless, when she no longer needs them, the family plan to have a grand celebration.