Rosa burns her hands with scalding water (Updated June 2nd)

April 24, 2007: Manila Philippines

Olympus E-1, Olympus Zuiko 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 Digital: 1/250s f/2.9 at 20.0mm iso200

Rosa showing me the burns to her hands that I referred to in the anniversary post below.

I arrived back in Manila on April 23 and immediately went to see Rosa's Family; her friend Anna went to fetch her as soon as she saw me, and Rosa came out to show me that she'd been burned by scalding water earlier in the day - I was shocked to see her hands slightly swollen, totally red and covered by what looked like tomato juice, seeds & all.

She explained to me that Auntie Josie had nothing to treat her burns, so she applied a crushed tomato to her hands as that's all she could do - and Rosa's hands were now blistered and very painful, so I immediately asked Josie & Willie for permission to take her to see a doctor, and off we went to the clinic, where Rosa was seen and given an expensive antibiotic ointment for preventing infection - I also went out and bought a lot of gauze bandages & tape so she could keep the burns covered, and told her she needed to change the dressings at least twice a day, and to not get them wet, etc.

The image above is from the next day when the swelling had gone down, and the burns were clean & dry - Rosa did a great job in following my instructions for burn care, and her hands were really painful for the next few days but thankfully there was no infection.

My good friend & fellow photographer Kevin Weir had given me some funds to use for Rosa's needs when I got to Manila; I'm just thankful I was able to arrive from Cebu ahead of schedule with extra time to spend with her Family, and I'm deeply grateful to Kevin for paying for her clinic treatment as well as for the Family's food that week.

Update: June 2, 2007

I've done this for Rosa & Edison before after arriving in Manila in the past - below are images from November 2005 when I arrived to find them both with severe eye infections, like a pink-eye infection.

I shot a few frames of the kids as soon as I'd arrived & immediately noticed Rosa's eyes were nearly swollen shut, and this disturbed me - Tito Willie came right over & said they'd both caught some sort of eye infection possibly from the dirt & pollution of where they lived although he wasn't sure.

I knew they had no money for a doctor's visit but it was clear they had to be treated right then & there, so I got them to a doctor who did prescribe an antibiotic eye ointment to be administered 3x daily, and both infections did eventually clear up, but it took an entire week of medication as I remember.

November 11, 2005: Manila Philippines

Thank you for reading today,
PJAMES