By Shawn Hogendorf, Staff Writer 

Jennifer Patrick understands that “boys will be boys.” But after a BB gun accident in May that left her son with third-degree burns on 39 percent of his body, the mother of seven children hopes both children and parents act responsibly with guns, whether they consider them toys or not.

A benefit for Emmanuel Patrick, 16, of Prior Lake is set for 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday, July 18 at the Prior Lake VFW, 16306 Main Ave. There will be a silent auction, spaghetti dinner, bake sale, raffle and feature entertainment by a high school band. The benefit costs $9 per plate.Emmanuel Patrick runs the 100
meters at the Joe Lane Invitational
in Minnetonka with the Prior Lake
High School track team. Emmanuel
was burned after a BB gun incident
in Spring Lake Township on May
24.

On May 24, Emmanuel, who will be a junior at Prior Lake High School this year, was hanging out with two friends at a home in Spring Lake Township. His friend’s parents weren’t home at the time, and the boys got out a BB gun and began to shoot birds, his mother, Jennifer, said.

Emmanuel was chopping wood when one of his friends took out spray paint cans, drew a circle on the ground, lit it on fire, placed the spray paint can in the middle of the circle and then stepped back and shot the top off the cans, causing them to explode, she said.

The boys did this about five times, then went to shoot the top of another spray paint can in the same manner, but nothing happened.

Emmanuel went over to look at the can, as the other two boys stood back. Emmanuel then put his arms up in a motion to say to his friends, “Why didn’t anything happen?”

At this time, Emmanuel received a text message and turned to check his phone, just as one of the boys shot the spray paint can a second time – without giving Emmanuel any warning to step back. Because there was already a hole in the top of the can, when it exploded, fire came out the side of the can and covered every part of Emmanuel’s body that wasn’t clothed.

Emmanuel stopped, dropped and rolled.

After the fire was out, Emmanuel stood up and told his friends the ‘burning was unbelievable,’ his mother said. The boys put Emmanuel in a bathtub, but when the burning didn’t stop, they put him in the car to take him to the hospital.

While en route to St. Francis Regional Medical Center in Shakopee, one of the boys called his mother to tell her what happened. The mother told the boy he had to take Emmanuel home to his mother.

On the way to bring Emmanuel home, the boys called Jennifer and told her what happened.

Jennifer remembers sitting outside in the driveway waiting for Emmanuel to come home in anticipation of what she would see. When the boys arrived at her home, Emmanuel was only wearing shorts.

“His body looked like it was spray painted purple,” she said. “His skin was bubbling and peeling and he was going into shock.”

Jennifer loaded her son into the vehicle and drove him to St. Francis. At that time, no one realized the extent of the burns, she said. After being at the hospital for about 10 minutes, Emmanuel was airlifted to the burn unit at Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) in Minneapolis.

When Emmanuel arrived at HCMC, the medics placed him in a tub room with a bed that Jennifer said “looked like a cadaver table.” They hosed him down and scrubbed off the burned skin.

When he initially came out of the room, surgeons told Jennifer it looked like her son had second-degree burns, but they warned her that his burns could either get better or worse in the next couple of days.

After a couple of days in the hospital, Emmanuel’s skin was “just peeling off with the treatments,” Jennifer said. Surgeons came into the room and told her that both of her son’s legs and one arm had third-degree burns and his face and neck had second-degree burns.

“The first week was horrifying,” she said. “It was unreal.”

While in the hospital, Emmanuel lost 17 pounds in 16 days and went through an “astronomical amount of pain drugs,” Jennifer said. He had skin grafts done all over his body and received more than 1,000 staples.

For the next two years, Emmanuel will have to wear compression shorts and sleeves to prevent permanent skin damage.

Emmanuel’s young age and the fact that he is an athlete allowed him to begin healing quickly, Jennifer said. He feels better, but his skin is paper thin.

As a track runner and football player at Prior Lake High School, Emmanuel cannot play sports for a year, can’t have any contact and doesn’t sweat, Jennifer said. He can’t be out in the sun, and if he is, he needs to have enough sunscreen on or the pigment in his skin can be ruined for the rest of his life. When winter rolls around, he will also have to be extra careful of frostbite.

In the last couple of months, Emmanuel has been doing great physically, Jennifer said, but the stages of grief are starting to set in.

“He needed to cry,” she said. “He needed to be mad. You can’t deny the five steps of grieving.”

When Emmanuel was in the hospital, he felt like this was a “crappy deal,” his mother said. But being in the burn unit, he also saw others who were burned worse and realized how lucky he actually was.

“When I first saw Emmanuel stand, I just couldn’t imagine that a kid who was doing so well in track would look like a 100-year-old man when he stood up,” Jennifer said. “It’s hard because I see the pain in his eyes.”

Through it all, the support of his friends has been tremendous, his mother said. The support of the community donating to the benefit has also been a great help, she said.

“It’s been hard, because our relationship has always been based on sarcasm and humor. It has never been about emotion,” she added. “That’s why when I heard him tell his friends he loved them, I couldn’t help but cry.”

A “toy” changed Emmanuel’s life forever, she said, and parents have a responsibility to teach gun safety if guns are around.

“As a mother, I know boys will be boys,” she said. “I don’t have any animosity toward any of the boys. My frustration comes as a mother. Parents need to teach children how to safely clean a gun, lock it and keep it in a safe place.”

Gun safety

In 2006, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled that a BB gun is a firearm.

As a parent and a gun owner, Jennifer said she is aware that gun laws change every couple of years.

“I hope parents make it habit to look at the changes to these laws,” she said. “Negligence is not an excuse. Parents need to be aware of what kids will do if given the opportunity.”

According to state law, there are both felony and gross-misdemeanor penalties when it comes to gun laws.

The state law referencing rifles and shotguns in public places does consider a BB gun – meaning a device that fires or ejects a shot measuring .18 of an inch or less in diameter – a firearm.

In Prior Lake, BB guns cannot be shot within city limits, said Sgt. John Stanger of the Prior Lake Police Department. People have to handle BB guns as they would any other firearm, because the projectile can injure a person very easily.

“A lot of BB guns are very powerful and can penetrate deeply through skin,” Stanger said. “People need to make sure to lock them up, make sure kids know how to use them and be safe with them. Parents should also monitor their kids when using firearms.”

Stanger said following the National Rifle Association’s rules for gun safety is important.

People using firearms should only use the correct ammunition and always keep a gun pointed in a safe direction, Stanger said. People should always keep their finger off the trigger until they are ready to shoot, keep the gun unloaded until it’s ready to use and know their target and what’s behind it.

“People have to lock BB guns up and keep them in a safe place, because of what can happen with kids who don’t know how to use them,” Stanger said.

Minnesota law also states that a person is guilty of a gross-misdemeanor offense if a firearm is negligently stored or loaded firearms are left in a place where a child is likely to gain access.

Benefit

At the benefit, Jennifer hopes to have a gun safety instructor speak to students and pass out gun locks. Members of the Prior Lake High School football team also will hand out fliers with current gun laws printed on them.

The benefit comes at a time when the hospital bills are starting to pile up, Jennifer said. There have been 22 bills the family has received before even seeing the hospital costs.

Jennifer said she was recently charged $7,840 for the helicopter lift that just included the cost of the flight. In addition to the bills and the out-of-pocket expenses for Emanuel’s health, she said she had to miss 16 days of work at Mystic Lake Casino.

“We just want to get the word out about gun safety and do something for the kids,” she said. “By getting the kids involved with different aspects of the benefit, it changes them. If they’re involved, my hope is they will think before doing something stupid like this in the future.”

 Shawn Hogendorf can be reached at (952) 345-6374 or shogendorf@swpub.com.