What happened to them sounds awful!Kathyd wrote: ↑March 12th, 2018, 3:56 pm As far as how they got burned so bad, it was an accident involving some caustic acid which our dad stored in this shed behind our house. My brother and I were disciplining them by spraying them with it, but unfortunately we didn't know how potent it was. It was actually used for cleaning out 55 gallon drums of industrial waste. We had disciplined them by spraying them before, but not with this particular chemical. Normally, the other chemicals just irritated their skin and caused them to break out really bad, but eventually their skin healed. This stuff, however, was not like that. We knew something was wrong right afterwards because their skin was disintegrating and they were in much more pain than the other times I sprayed them. They had to be rushed to the hospital and they almost died. My sister even lost the vision in one of her eyes. It was a terrible incident but in the end it was what saved them, because after that I finally realized that I had to do something, and I ended up telling people about what was going on.
Now, naturally my brother and I feel terrible about it, but the question is what should we do about it? Or even, what can we do about it? Because there is really no way to fix what was done. Their scars are permanent, and no amount of cosmetic surgery is going to make a difference. And I wouldn't feel comfortable 'paying them off' for what happened. Not only do I think that would be a superfluous gesture, a cheap way to try and minimize my own guilt, but I also don't think it would be fair. It's not right to hold me and my brother accountable for what happened given the conditions we were in. To me, that would be like having the Nazi janitor compensate 'his' victims.
I would think that you would want to pay for any reconstructive surgery out of contrition, even if the results were negligible.