LOVING ARMS: Seb, 5, Arna, 3, and Claudia Hopkins, 6. The two older children will help Arna?s recovery by keeping her active.
Playing with her brother and sister will be vital to the healing process for burnt toddler Arna Hopkins, who is back home in Martinborough.
Arna, 3, was all smiles as she was reunited with her pet lambs and chickens at her family's South Wairarapa farm after being released from Hutt Hospital's burns unit yesterday.
She was transferred to the unit on Wednesday after spending nearly six weeks, initially heavily sedated, having multiple skin grafts in Auckland's Middlemore Hospital.
Uncle, Kane Hopkins, said Arna was "beaming" when she arrived back at the farmhouse to her own bedroom and her pets.
"She smiled when she got home - it's already had a positive effect."
But the return home was bittersweet, he said. Although Arna is "super-excited" to be back with her family, the Labour Weekend homecoming begins the next phase in a painful recovery.
She will need at least two more years of scar management, rehabilitation and the possibility of more corrective surgery.
"Things have just been horrible and who knows what the long-term effects will be?
"It's certainly not the end of the road. It's going to be a big shock for her to be out of hospital and to go back to daily life. It will be very different to what it was like before," Mr Hopkins said.
Arna suffered severe burns to her body and face on September 10, after accidentally setting fire to her clothes.
She was lighting a candle for twin sister Mila, who died of an infection in August.
Weeks spent bedridden have left the toddler's muscles shrunken. Scarring, especially over joints, has restricted her natural movement.
But while still uncomfortable, skin grafts on Arna's chest and abdomen are taking well.
She is receiving physiotherapy, especially massage, for delicate scars around her knuckles and wrist, and must keep her fingers bent in a brace as she sleeps to allow the skin to loosen.
Her siblings Seb, 5, and Claudia, 6, will be crucial to her recovery.
"She'll be able to play with her brother and sister and that will be part of her healing and getting her moving again. There's no better way than playing," Mr Hopkins said.
"She's going to love being home but she's going to have to be put through a painful process."
Mum, Penny, a teacher, has been by her daughter's side since the accident.
Dad, Regan, who badly burnt his hands saving Arna, has been looking after Seb and Claudia at home and on their trips to Auckland to visit their sister.
- ? Fairfax NZ News
Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/7841579/Burnt-girl-makes-a-beeline-for-pet-lambs
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