Mother loses two fingers after taking firework from daughter

By Jayson Knight, [email protected]

Jessica Kies says a large Roman-candle-style firework apparently failed to discharge properly, leaving the hairstylist facing surgeries, rehabilitation and uncertainty about returning to work.

Jessica Kies knew something was wrong moments before the firework exploded in her right hand.

One of the final projectiles had failed to clear the large, cannon-like tube. Kies initially thought the firework had finished, but then she felt something moving inside it.

“I felt it kind of halfway up the tube, and it just exploded in my hand,” Kies said.
The June 19 accident severed Kies’ pinky and ring finger, fractured a bone in her hand and left her with burns across her arm, neck and chest. The 36-year-old Bridge Creek mother and hairstylist now faces additional surgery, months of rehabilitation and an uncertain future in the profession she has practiced since 2013.

The explosion happened at about 9:45 p.m. outside Kies’ home and home-based salon in the Bridge Creek area.

Kies said her 7-year-old daughter, Rebel, had selected several fireworks, including smoke bombs, sparklers, fountains, ordinary Roman candles and the much larger device involved in the accident.

The family waited until dark before lighting the larger firework. Kies described it as resembling a Roman candle, but substantially bigger and more powerful.
Rebel was holding the firework when the first projectile discharged, causing the tube to jerk backward hard enough to frighten her. Rebel no longer wanted to hold it, and Kies’ husband had his hands full, so Kies took the device.

She said the accident occurred on approximately the second-to-last shot.

“It didn’t kind of come out all the way, and I actually thought it was done until I felt it move in the tube,” Kies said. “I felt in my stomach like I should have dropped it.”

The device then exploded.

“When it blew my hand up, my fingers were gone immediately,” Kies said. “That was the first thing that I noticed, and I couldn’t hear anything.”

Kies said she did not initially feel the burns across her chest, neck and arm. She looked at her hand, saw the severity of the injury and immediately ran into her salon to keep her daughter from seeing it.

She grabbed towels, wrapped the injury and held her hand above her head while telling her husband to call 911.

“I just went into shock, and it was like business mode,” Kies said. “I knew exactly what I had to do, wrap my hand, tie it off and call an ambulance.”

Her husband used a ski rope from their boat as an improvised tourniquet until emergency medical personnel arrived.

When emergency personnel arrived, they brought a chair into the driveway and began treating Kies. She said one of the younger responders turned pale when the towels were removed from her hand.

“I’ll never forget his face,” Kies said. “His face was just white.”

She recalled an older responder arriving with his medical kit and redirecting the younger crew member.

“He goes, ‘Come on, son. You’ve got to quit staring at it. Let’s get it wrapped up,’” Kies said.

Despite the severity of the injury, Kies remained calm enough to repeatedly give responders her name, date of birth and other information.

“I guess when I go into shock, I’m not one of those people that freak out,” she said. “I just handle things. It’s like business mode.”

Kies said the blast tore away much of the outside portion of her hand and damaged it nearly to her middle finger. A fractured bone below the pinky was stabilized with pins, and doctors were unable to close a large wound on the top of her hand because so much skin was missing.

Her family recovered both severed fingers from the driveway and transported them to the hospital, but they could not be reattached.

Kies said the hand surgeon studied photographs and the extent of the damage for about 2½ hours while determining how much of her hand could be saved.

“He said that I was one of the worst cases that he’s ever seen,” Kies said.

At the time of the interview, Kies was preparing for a skin-graft procedure. She said swelling had also made it difficult for doctors to determine the full extent of possible injuries to her wrist, middle finger and surrounding structures.

The long-term effect on the movement of her hand remains unknown.

“We haven’t even got to the tendons and stuff in my hand and my movement,” Kies said. “My recovery is going to be a long time.”

Kies is right-handed, and the injury affected the hand she uses to cut and style hair. She said her middle and ring fingers were her primary scissor fingers.
Specialized scissors may eventually help her adapt, but she is not yet physically able to attempt hairstyling.

“At the moment, no, I can’t,” Kies said when asked whether she could cut hair. “I will get through it, and I can get it. It’s just going to be a long process.”

Other ordinary tasks have become impossible to perform the way she once did. She cannot currently write with her injured hand, open jars on her own or French braid her daughter’s hair. She has already begun practicing to write with her left hand.

“It’s every day I learn something new that I have to retrain myself and start over,” Kies said. “This is a life-changing thing. I’m going to have to do a lot of physical therapy and relearn how to do a ton of things that are super important that a lot of people take for granted.”

Kies said her daughter had been standing approximately five feet behind her when the explosion occurred. Her husband and daughter had just turned to walk toward the shop and did not see the moment of the blast.

Her daughter escaped without a burn or visible mark.

“That’s the only thing that really keeps me from being super upset,” Kies said. “I’m upset that I’ve lost two of my fingers, but I don’t know what I would have done if it would have happened to her.”

Kies said the exact firework was not an ordinary Roman candle. She described it as a much larger device with projectiles she believed may have been roughly golf-ball size before they were fired.

Kies also said she does not blame the fireworks stand where it was purchased. Her reason for speaking publicly, she said, is to warn families who may believe a catastrophic fireworks injury will never happen to them.

“I’ve grown up holding Roman candles,” Kies said. “We all have known, ‘Don’t hold fireworks. They could blow up in your hand,’ but, ‘Oh, it’s not going to happen to me.’ Well, it happened to me, and I’m glad it happened to me and not my 7-year-old baby.”

Kies said she received harsh comments online after television reports about the accident, including accusations that she was seeking attention, money or someone to blame.

She said she had not originally planned to give interviews. Friends and members of the Bridge Creek community established a GoFundMe account and meal train without being asked after learning about her injuries.

She said the support from her family, clients, friends and the Bridge Creek community has outweighed the criticism.

Kies and her husband also own Harley-Davidson motorcycles, and she initially feared the injury would prevent her from ever riding again. Friends have already begun discussing ways to modify the motorcycle’s controls so she can reach the brake with her remaining fingers.

She acknowledged that she still cries when the pain becomes intense or when she sees how permanently her hand has changed. Then she reminds herself that her daughter was unharmed.

“Every day, I will take it for her,” Kies said. “Any mom would do that for their kids.”

Kies has also found a symbol of resilience in what remains. She and her closest friends ordered matching gold necklaces featuring a hand making a peace sign.

“Now I’ve just got enough to do the peace sign,” Kies said. “I’ll find the positive in that.”