A 19-year-old woman says she has finally come to terms with her scars nearly three years after she was burned by molten plastic on Valentine’s Day. Hannah Armstrong was left with significant burns to her leg after her clothes caught fire.
It was believed that a fire was started by a group of teenagers to keep warm, but Hannah’s clothes were set alight when she was accidentally splashed with melted plastic on February 14, 2020. At first she didn’t realise she was on fire, then when she saw the flames she suddenly stopped, dropped and rolled while screaming at her friends to call for help.
Her mum, Rachel Birchall, 40, rushed Hannah, who was 16 at the time, to University Hospital of North Durham, County Durham. She was then blue-lighted to Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle Upon Tyne where there was a burns unit. Hannah had the melted plastic, clothes, dead tissue and skin scraped off her, which she described as “sounding disgusting”.
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Hannah, who is from Durham, said: “I remember the feeling of something being splashed on me and it felt freezing cold. Then I saw the flames and realised I was on fire. I tried to move but fell into the fire before I stopped, dropped and rolled.
“My leg was covered in plastic and my clothes were stuck to me. I thought I was going to die.”
After three days in intensive care the teenager was sent home and later had a skin graft at the end of February 2020, which involved taking skin from her upper thigh to put over the deep burn on her left leg. However, the skin graft failed to take and Hannah caught septicaemia, a potentially life-threatening infection.
Hannah had to have further surgery and her second skin graft was successful, although she suffered a reaction to her antibiotics which caused her to have an irregular heartbeat and patchy rashes. She had to remain in hospital until she was discharged in April 2020 and continued with physio and her scar treatment at home.
Hannah struggles with her mobility and doesn't have any feeling in the limb. The 19-year-old, who is currently unable to work, said: “I had to learn to walk again because I didn’t know how to use my left leg. I cried for weeks and weeks.
“I couldn’t even look at my scar. People were horrible about it at college.
“But I realised it’s not my problem if my scar makes people uncomfortable. Now I finally feel confident about it.”
“I felt like I had to form a new life for myself,” Hannah added.
Hannah had another cardiac episode in June 2020 and was diagnosed with Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia – which causes an irregular heartbeat. Now she is undergoing surgeries over the next year to help with her mobility as she often struggles more with movement during the winter months.
But the 19-year-old has finally reached a place of acceptance within herself and wants to inspire others.
She said: “A scar doesn’t make you any less human. I used to feel like I was just being seen as my scar.
“People just wanted to know what happened. I don’t want people to walk on eggshells around me.
“Every single body is different and we don’t need to seek someone's approval for how you look.”
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