"Great treatment from QMC for my son after a burn injury"

In July my youngest son who is 20 months old, badly scalded his torso by pulling a cup of tea off our kitchen worktop on to himself. Having spent the day in the care of the staff of QMC Nottingham, both my wife and I felt compelled to let you know just how impressed and amazed we were with the care and service we received from all the staff at the hospital.

When I arrived at the Emergency Department at 7. 15am, with a screaming and distressed little boy, the staff efficiently and calmly dealt with the situation, administering some pain relief and monitoring his heart rate and oxygen levels within moments.

Within a very short while our son was seen by a doctor and following that he was referred to a children's ward in the hospital.

I was personally escorted to the ward by one of the ward's Nurses, Angela, who took great care of us all throughout the day.

Our son was allocated a bed and was tended to immediately upon arrival at the ward. His wounds were dressed and Angela liaised with the Burns Unit to arrange for a doctor to see him.

By 10am he had been seen by a surgeon, Dr. Foong, who I think had been called in especially to see him. She explained all of the options to us and supported us to make a decision in terms of how best to treat our son's injury.

We decided to go with her recommendation to have a surgical procedure to attach a Biobrane to the burn area and by 1pm our son was in the operating theatre. During this time Angela was by our side, supporting not just our son but both my wife and I. The anaesthetist and the surgery team were amazing too, treating us very respectfully and explaining everything to us and providing quiet reassurance about what would happen and when.

After the operation Dr. Foong spent more time with my wife and I, explaining more about what she had done and giving us further information about Biobrane and the operation, and how we could best support our son in the coming weeks.

After the operation we returned to the ward where Angela and the other ward staff continued to provide fantastic levels of care and support.

We were delighted when they agreed, at about 7pm, that our son could come home, although they did not let us leave until they had given us a clear plan of what we needed to do in terms of pain relief, dressings, diet and future appointments.

The brilliant treatment our son received alone was something quite remarkable given how our publicly funded health system works, but the level of care clearly extended to me and my wife too. This included, for example, Angela giving me a detailed tour of the children's ward, other staff offering us drinks etc throughout the day, and an option for counselling offered to my wife, who at the time was deeply distressed by what had happened.

I can't thank QMC and their great team enough and the very fact that our son is running around at home the next day, very much his usual self, is a real testament to the brilliance of all of the QMC's staff. We are very proud and lucky to have such a great health service available to us here in Nottingham, with access to some of the world's best technology and health professionals. Please pass our sincere gratitude on to everyone involved.