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Paramedics treated a man at Pakenham on Thursday 26 January after an incident involving a gas bottle.
Advanced life support and intensive care paramedics were called to the scene just before 12.30pm.
Paramedic Jo Algie said that when they arrived they found the 58-year-old man soothing his burns in a cool shower.
‘He told us that he was leaning over the top of a nine kilogram gas bottle when, for some reason, it exploded.
‘He had about eight percent superficial burns to his arms, and face including his eyelids.
‘Obviously he was in a severe amount of pain and because of the burns he was having difficulty moving his arms.
‘With blasts like this there is a potential for your airway to be burnt, after breathing in flames. Burns to your airway can swell and put your life at risk, so we had to carefully examine the man’s mouth and look for any signs that his airway could be affected.
‘Thankfully his airway was fine.
‘He was understandably anxious and in pain, so we calmed him and gave him a large amount of pain relief through an inhaler and then via drip to his hand.
‘We applied a burns gel to the affected skin which is designed to cool the skin and protect it from infection.
‘Ironically, despite having burns he had become quite cold after being in a cool shower for about 20 minutes, so we had to warm him up again with a blanket.
‘He was then taken to Dandenong Hospital in a stable condition.
‘This man was incredibly lucky not to have suffered more serious burns or other injuries in the blast,’ Ms Algie said.
ENDS