doctorbeth:

Ok, I know…. light bulbs?  really?  are you talking about broken fluorescent bulbs or something?  what does that have to do with stuffed animals?

Nope, I’m not talking about the chemicals in fluorescents, but please try not to get that on yourself or your stuffed animals either.  I’m actually talking about heat from traditional light bulbs, which can burn!

I had two light bulb burn patients in the last week… Here are their stories:

First to arrive was Mr. Bear aka Tim aka Blue Bear.  His person’s mom wrote:

Hi!
A friend of mine told me about your amazing hospital!!
My sweet 7yo boy, G, has had a love thang with his Mr. Bear, aka Tim, since birth. He has been his constant, loyal companion - usually appearing in family photos as our 7th family member
However, the DAY we moved here to Nashville (Oct 2018), Mr. Bear suffered an awful accident.
We were waiting here in our townhouse for the moving truck to arrive. There was nothing for our four boys to play with, so they resorted to inventing games with their bears.
They were throwing them up the stairwell when G’s got stuck, bottoms up - head down, in a hanging light pendant. There was no way I could get him down, so I told G we’d wait for the moving truck (& our ladder) to arrive.
Imagine the horror in G’s scream when we pulled Bear down from the light and saw his burned off face.  We both just stood there, holding each other and sobbing. It was such a sad, unbelievable moment.
——————-
That evening, G decided he wanted to just go get another Bear to take his place, so that’s what we did.  However, on the eve of his 7th birthday last week, G was sobbing on his pillow about how Mr. Bear was gone and not with him on his special day.
That’s when we decided to find other solutions to mend Mr. Bear
Would y’all be able to help Mr. Bear get fixed? We would be so grateful!!!

Here is Mr. Bear’s Diagnosis photo:

The usual treatment for this type of burn is to excise charred fur and stuffing, put in new stuffing, and then provide a fur transplant.  Blue Bear being blue, there were a few options for a fur transplant, though not an exact match (blue, once aged, is next to impossible to match exactly):

So they chose the second option and surgery proceeded.  In different lighting, it’s a bit brighter than Mr. Bear, but the idea is it will age well to match.

Once he had the transplant, he also had a new eye embroidered.  Here are the fist photos of his reconstructed face:

And then we added just a touch more stuffing to plump him up before he flew home to Tennessee:

His family wrote:

We are all just blown away by the high level of care you gave Mr. Bear. G was overwhelmed with PURE JOY when he got his bear back today!!! It was absolutely precious!

Thank you sooooooooo much!!! I’ve already told so many friends about you!

This post is getting a bit long, so I’m going to share the second light bulb victim’s story in my next one. :-)