Little Jack Livingstone is bouncing back after suffering severe burns when his flannelette pyjamas - labelled low fire danger - caught fire.
The three-year-old Waikato boy was watching TV in front of a heater on July 8 when his pyjamas ignited. He suffered burns to 15 per cent of his body, spent three weeks in hospital and needed skin grafts from his leg. He had surgery on his right arm and shoulder, has to wear a pressure suit 23 hours a day for two years to reduce scarring and gets a daily sea-salt bath before soothing lotions are applied.
Now back at daycare, he likes playing on the trampoline and reading about dinosaurs. "He doesn't complain," father Mike Livingstone said. "He's a good little kid and he's just getting on with life." He remembers his 13-year-old daughter screaming "Jack's on fire, Jack's on fire." Mr Livingstone suffered superficial hand burns trying to smother the flames. His seven-year-old daughter was also burnt when a piece of clothing flew off and hit her leg.
He had not heard of the one metre from a heater rule the Consumer Affairs ministry recommends, and said the warning should be on pyjamas instead of "low-fire danger" if it was so important.
