Background
Methods
Study place and population
Sample size
Case | Areas | Age (in years/ months) | Case presentation |
---|---|---|---|
Case 1 | Mollarhat upazila, Bagerhat district | 10 months | Put the hands in the hot cooked rice dish. |
Case 2 | Fakirhat upazila, Bagerhat District | 01 year | Put the lower limb into the oven when mother was cooking. |
Case 3 | Durgapur upazila, Netrakona district | 18 years | Suicidal attempt. |
Case 4 | Purbadhala upazila, Netrakona district | 5 years | During carrying traditional lamp (Kupibati) at evening inside the home, fire caught into cloth. |
Case 5 | Sadar upazila, Narail District | 7 years | Put oil in the fire when playing and caught fire. |
Case | Lohagora upazila, Narail District | 18 years | Fire caught from short circuit from electric cable. |
Areas of discussion | Types of prompts used |
---|---|
Perception of burn injuries and primary first aid in the community. | General views of burn injuries in rural communities, Common causes of burn in the community. Ideas about immediate care (first aid) following a burn injury. Where the community obtain the information about what they need to do for treating a burn injury, (the source of information) |
Community practices immediately after a burn injury occurs. | What are the practices in the community immediately after a burn injury occurs? What treatment(s) is (are) applied to a burn patient? Where do rural communities go if any complications arise from the burn injury? From whom do rural communities usually seek health care? What are the challenges faced by rural communities to offer first aid and ensure appropriate referral of the patient? |
Data collection
Data processing and analysis
Results
Perception regarding causes of burn injury at community
“I was making tea in the oven in the kitchen; my eight months’ daughter was crying in the cart, I suddenly rushed to catch my daughter. Part of my clothes caught fire and I did not see that at first, later when it started to spread, neighbors saw me and threw water [over woman].”
“Children are at high risk. We don’t put water [on the fire] at the end of cooking in the yard. Children crawl in the yard and put their hands inside the oven which causes burn. We found at least five recently delivered mothers who caught fire in last one year when they sit with their newborn in front of the flame to get warm.”Another woman said “ we do make mistakes and we understand after any accident occur, we never careful about the fire around the oven which is the common place to get burned in villages.”
Perception about severity and outcome of burn injuries
“I have seen one of my relatives burnt on the face, she fell into hot water whilst taking something out from the oven. Neighbors said that she will not survive; I cannot even recognize her face. We bought her to our kabiraj, he treated for a month and my relative is now quite ok. We did not go to the hospital”.
“One of my neighbors was burned by flames from the oven in the kitchen. We noticed that the house was burning; we threw lots of water [on it]. The woman was badly injured; a health worker told us the patient will not survive if we delayed the transfer. We understood and immediately sent the woman to the district facility.”
“Last winter I was preparing food in the kitchen and after I finished cooking, I forgot to put water in the oven [that was] in the yard. My one-year-old son crawled to the oven and put his legs inside the oven and was severely burnt”.
Practices of the community after a burn injury occurs
“We usually remove the burnt skin; this is the death black skin, when we remove that fresh skin comes up, reddish. Then we put different things like toothpaste, egg, crushed potato, salty water, coconut oil, turmeric powder, or even red chili powder etc. Initially the person feels pain but in the long run, it makes a quick recovery”.Another participant felt that, “Applying water to the burn injured place may cause further wound. Rather applying cow dung, kerosene or cumin oil, mud, blended banana are so useful. I come to know from my grandmother that applying cumin oil remove the pain and burning sensation.” One of the male participants had a more accurate idea of what was beneficial for a burn: “We use moist clay which makes immediate effect, it helps to cool the burn area. Sometimes we also put some water during applying clay”.
Health seeking behavior of rural communities
“When my three-year child was burnt, immediately we went to the upazila health complex. They were not able to treat my child and referred to the district hospital. In the district hospital, I found their burn patient management negligent, they did not regularly do my child’s dressings”.
“My relative got burn and we went to the hospital, it was in Sadar (district) hospital. They provided initial treatment, bandage the wound and asked to immediately transfer the patient to Dhaka medical college burn unit. Dhaka is about six to seven hours distance from the district and we were not in a position to take my relative to Dhaka. We felt hopeless and returned back to our village, later our Kabiraj treated my relative. He is now much better”.
“It takes about one hour to bring the patient to the facility but the most difficult thing is to get transport to transfer the patient, especially when the burn occurs at night.”