Callum in hot coals horror
He picks up BBQ rocks left on beach by idiot youths
A BOY was left screaming in agony after picking up scorching barbecue coals left lying at a beauty spot. Seven-year-old Callum McSwiggan was playing in the sand at Luss beach on Loch Lomond when he picked up what he thought were stones that he could skim. He collapsed in pain and was rushed to hospital where he was given morphine while the charred skin was cut from his badly burned hands. Mum Carly Lawlor, from DAY OUT Carly and Callum Drumchapel, Glasgow, told how Thursday’s day trip in the sun with Callum and his four-year-old brother turned into a nightmare.
She said: “I was teaching him how to skim stones in the water. He ran away to get some and he must have thought ‘jackpot’ when he saw the pile of stones.
“He picked them up and just screamed. Callum never cries. For him to cry, I knew it was serious.”
She added: “The group of boys who threw the coals away were just sat there watching when it happened. “Everyone else ran to help.” Callum was rushed to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, where his hands were bandaged and placed in protective gloves.
Carly said: “It took four people to give him morphine just so he could brave the pain, he was screaming that bad.
“He had to have the skin removed on both hands but his right hand is the worst. He could need physiotherapy for his wrist because if the scar tissue joins together, it could make it harder to move.”
Callum will wear the gloves for at least 10 days and Carly said it has left him unable to do anything for himself.
She added: “He can’t even scratch his head. It’s the summer holidays and he keeps asking me what is fun that doesn’t need his hands.”
Loch Lomond national park boss Gordon Watson said: “It’s important that people take responsibility and do the right thing and properly cool and dispose of disposable barbecues carefully.”