In 2019, the Cox family Fourth of July celebration was underway when Harlee, then 7, laid beside her mom, Kayla Cox, to watch partygoers set off fireworks from the road below. When someone lit a large artillery shell firework, it tumbled over and the fireworks shot at the crowd, not up in the air. Then Cox saw any parent’s nightmare — her daughter was on fire.
“Her clothes and her hair (were) on fire,” Cox, 34, from Indianapolis, tells TODAY.com. “I grabbed the water from the cooler and put it on her and then everyone started grabbing bottles of water to dump on her.”
The family rushed Harlee to the hospital where they learned the girl experienced grave injuries.
“They were third degree burns on the whole right side of her neck, her whole chest and parts of both of her arms and hands were hurt pretty badly,” Cox says.Fourth of July party ends in tragedy
The Cox family loves the Fourth of July and always hosts a party with picnic foods and fireworks. As Cox and Harlee, now 10, sat on the hill close to their house to watch the fireworks, Harlee told her mom something didn’t feel right. She considered going inside but instead laid on a blanket to see the fireworks. Minutes later, the artillery shell firework misfired in their direction.
“I ducked my head over Harlee’s legs,” Cox says. “I lifted up my head really quickly and I noticed Harlee grabbed her neck and then I (saw) a big explosion. The firework was so hot that it hit her neck and stuck to her skin.”
It exploded with Harlee’s hand over it and her hair and clothes caught fire. Immediately, Cox and others grabbed nearby water and began trying to put the fire out. Through the chaos, Cox peppered her daughter with questions that went unanswered.
“She didn’t say a word,” Cox says. “She was in shock.”
Harlee has vague memories of that day.
“I remember my mom when she picked me up and put me in the car and everyone was throwing water on me,” Harlee tells TODAY.com. “That’s the only thing I remember.”
Cox rushed to the nearest emergency room. Doctors put bandages soaked in cold water over Harlee’s body and offered her pain medicine. They recommended the girl go to Riley Hospital for Children for specialized care. Cox worried that Harlee felt no pain.
“She knew she had been burned but the adrenaline and the shock had taken over her body,” Cox says. “She was like, ‘I don’t feel anything.’”
Harlee didn’t lose any fingers or limbs from the explosion and putting her hands over her ear helped her.
“The doctor did tell me that her putting her hands over the fireworks before it exploded actually saved her ear,” Cox says. “She could have lost hearing.”
After she was stabilized, doctors at Riley treated her with something called burn baths where they’d cover her in “a special cream” and then bandaged her before removing them and bathing her.
“She would have to sit in this bathtub, and they would scrub out her burns,” Cox says. “That was probably the worst part of the whole thing. Those were very rough.”
Cox helped hold Harlee down for the baths and the girl thrashed, cried and begged for the pain to end.
“When you pulled (the dressings) off obviously the burns would bleed, but that is what they wanted,” Cox says. “When you’re cleaning burns, you have to scrub them out and get all the infection and dirt or whatever out. They want them to bleed because it shows they are healthy, and they are healing.”
Harlee eventually underwent about eight surgeries, including several skin grafts to cover areas too damaged by the burn.
“They were so bad,” Cox says. “(It) burned all the way to the muscle and tissue in her neck and her chest.”
After the first skin grafts, Harlee headed home where her family had to continue the painful burn baths. Over the next year and a half, she had the remaining surgeries, some skin grafts and some revision surgeries to make her skin less ropey.
“They tried to flatten it out as much as possible to make it soft,” Cox says.
Harlee also had to do physical therapy to improve the range of motion in her neck. The scarring caused a “rubber band effect,” pulling her neck forward. Even today, the family feels haunted by the fireworks mishap.
“People think that it cannot happen to you. Accidents do happen,” Cox says. “Fireworks are dangerous.”
Fireworks and children
People often think because they can buy fireworks legally that they are safe. But experts know otherwise.
“It’s best that young children are not anywhere close to fireworks,” Dr. Cory Showalter, the regional medical director and interim chief, division of pediatric emergency medicine for Riley Children’s Health, tells TODAY.com. “There are beautiful and fun professional fireworks shows that are very safe to watch.”
Other doctors agree and urge people to avoid all amateur fireworks and sparklers.
“There’s no safe way to use fireworks,” Dr. Jenny Ziembicki, medical director of the Burn Center at UPMC Mercy in Pittsburgh, previously told TODAY.com. “We recommend leaving them all up to professionals.”
In the weeks leading up and following the Fourth of July, emergency departments treat many fireworks injuries, which can include severe burns, eye injuries, hearing loss and limb loss.
“Some of these fireworks are incredibly powerful that you can purchase so we see a wide spectrum of injuries,” Showalter says. “Even sparklers — that have been around for a long time — get to 2,000 degrees … those can quickly cause very terrible burn injuries or light your clothes on fire.”
While Showalter says minor burns can be treated at home, serious burns require immediate medical attention and parents should call 911 for an ambulance to take their child to a hospital. He also advises people to avoid treating serious burns at home.
“We see people buy all kinds of home remedies for burns,” he says. “Sometimes they can do more harm than good.”
Severe burns can require a lot of medical attention and can take patients months or years to fully recover.
“Patients coming to our emergency department don’t realize what a long road ahead they will have,” he says.
Showalter encourages people to watch fireworks in a safe way.
“Enjoy your local fireworks shows that are put on by professionals,” he says.
‘No longer a big fan of the Fourth of July’
Since Harlee’s accident, Cox views the summer holiday differently.
“I am not going to lie, I am no longer a big fan of the Fourth of July,” she says. “For me, experiencing this with my child has really affected me. It makes me look at this holiday a lot different.”
Despite the difficulty of the ordeal, Harlee remains upbeat
“She had her good days and her bad days, but I’ve never seen a little girl who was just so happy all the time, regardless of her accident,” Cox says. “She always had a smile on her face and was always laughing and always looked for the best in everything.”
Harlee will start fifth grade in the fall and plays second base on a local softball team. Even though it was “tough being in the hospital for a while” and she “sometimes hurt very bad,” Harlee feels better and isn’t afraid to celebrate the holiday because it includes all things she enjoys.
“I like hanging out with my family, hanging out with my friends and just having fun,” she says.
Since Harlee’s accident, Cox worries about safety when it comes to her children and others.
“It’s a very very scary thing to watch your child go through something like that,” Cox says. “I would not want anybody else to have that experience.”
