Allambie Heights fireworks injuries: Brave Elias Carrera, 11, battles through surgery and pain
Details have emerged of a brave 11-year-old boy’s battle with a shocking injury – and his plans to be home for Xmas – after being hit by a rogue firework. GRAPHIC WARNING
Manly
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Elias Carrera is hoping to celebrate Christmas Day at home with his family after being struck by a rogue firework at a Christmas carol event.
Shocking details have emerged of the intensive treatment and pain that the brave northern beaches’ schoolboy has had to endure after the accident on December 11.
Elias was in the front row of the annual carols at Allambie Heights Oval when a malfunctioning Roman candle launched firey balls into the crowd.
The popular 11-year-old, who goes to Allambie Heights Public School, was hit in the left side of his upper abdomen with the firework burning through his thin T-shirt and into his flesh.
His mother Emma Carrera initially told family and friends that it left a “crater” the diameter of a 50 cent coin on her sons body as the firework punctured the abdominal muscles and burned its way through towards his spleen, located just under his ribs.
That wound in her son’s body, after surgery, was now the size of the palm of her hand, she revealed.
Ms Carrera told the Manly Daily she had released updated details of Elias’s injuries and treatment on social media because of the many people inquiring about his condition.
The Carrera family are hopeful that Elias will be released from hospital this week in time for Christmas Day.
“He is happy to tell it how it is, because he feels we’re all in this together and he doesn’t want his friends to feel weird or awkward about it,” Ms Carrera wrote on Facebook.
“The more detail I can give here, the less questions he’ll need to answer (at least in the short term) and the easier it becomes for our close community to process.
“Through all the (fireworks) melee … we thought it was a chest puncture, but it was actually closer to his abdomen,” Ms Carrera wrote.
“What started out as a 50 cent coin sized crater (from the burn/charring it’s genuinely what it looked like) became a large open wound the size of my palm because they had to clear all damaged tissue in and around and underneath.
“The spleen was lacerated, abdominal muscles torn and sewn back together (he’s wondering if he’ll have a 7-pac️k).
“Burns on his left leg and arm and abdomen will need redressing back here at the burns clinic next week — then stitches out hopefully in a couple of weeks.”
Elias was rushed to Royal North Shore Hospital and transferred to paediatric burns unit at The Children’s Hospital, Westmead.
Ms Carrera wrote that people had been asking if her son was in pain.
“Not going to lie. He is,” she wrote.
“It was the hardest part for me to witness.”
Elias has been given a powerful painkiller to help him cope with the burns and operation.
“I still am in awe of how these medicines can take his pain from a 10 to a one in 20 minutes,” Ms Carrera said.
“We are working on a plan for discharge and once home, no exercise, biking, scootering, playing activity of any sort for six weeks so the spleen and wounds heal and stay out of infection — one of the biggest concerns.”
Ms Carrera thanked all those who had sent best wishes for Elias’s recovery.
“I appreciate more than words can do justice, every single message, thought, comment or love heart on any correspondence about what happened to us this week,” she said.
“There’s so many people to thank for their selfless gestures and generosity.”
On the night of the incident, an eight-year-old girl was taken to Northern Beaches Hospital for treatment of burns and a broken wrist. A boy, 12, was taken to hospital by his parents for treatment to minor burns.
Six others were treated by NSW Rural Fire Service at the oval for minor injuries.
The firework’s display, provided by Howard & Sons Pyrotechnics, is being investigated by police and SafeWork NSW.
Company director Andrew Howard said on the day after the incident that it would co-operate with the investigations.
“We are concerned for the welfare of the persons injured. We are thinking of them and everyone who was at the event, including our onsite pyrotechnicians,” Mr Howard said.
SafeWork confirmed on Monday that SafeWork it was still investigating the incident.
“As inquiries are continuing no further comment is available at this time.”
NSW Police said on Monday its investigation was “ongoing”.
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