The first-hand account of a burn victim

Jordan Saw is much like any other young man, an avid fan of cars. With him though, he walked the talk.

He was in his second year of and automotive technology course, and working after college as part of the pit crew for a local racing team.

However, his passion for motorsports was also to be his burden. During a 12-hour endurance race, a pitstop accident resulted in seven people being burnt, with Jordan and the team's chief mechanic the worst affected (details of the incident are not revealed because of a pending court case).

"I was conscious most of the time, but blacked out a few times. I must have been in pain because I remember crying and trying to scream, but I had inhaled some fire as well, so I couldn't really talk.

"I remember someone asking for a phone number to call, so I managed to give my sister's number. Then the next thing I remember, I was on the stretcher."

Receiving the news

His mother, Datin Jenny Saw, recalls that she and her daughter Joanna had gone out to celebrate Joanna's birthday that night.

"As we were getting ready to go to bed, I got a call from Jordan's friend, who asked if I was in the country (Jenny's husband, Datuk Saw Ching Hong, was then Malaysia's ambassador to Kazakhstan)."

Upon finding out that she was, he told her that his brother, who was at the racing circuit, would be calling her shortly.

A couple of minutes later, she found out the bad news that Jordan had been burnt very badly.

The person in charge of the students on the racing team also got in touch with Joanna with the news.

The two of them immediately rushed to pick up Jordan's girlfriend from her home, and then, sped to the Putrajaya Hospital, where Jordan was being sent.

"We actually arrived about the same time as he did," says Jenny.

"He looked like a roasted pig with all the skin dropping off and the oxygen mask on him," she recalls frankly.

Jordan had been burnt over 65 per cent of his body. The areas involved included the right side of his face and neck, his arms, legs, abdomen, back and buttocks.

Around 32 per cent of the burns were third-degree - the most severe type of burn. In addition, about 30 per cent of his lungs had been burnt due to fire inhalation.

At that time, the emergency room doctor had told his family that Jordan had about a 25 per cent chance of survival.

But later on, Jenny found out that Jordan actually had had only a 1-2 per cent chance of survival that night.

She confesses that she asked the doctor at Putrajaya a "silly" question that night.

"I asked if Jordan's 'ding-dong' (penis) was alright, since I couldn't see it as it was covered with a cloth.

"The doctor laughed a bit, then went to check. When he came back, he told me it was all okay," she says. Her reasoning was: "He was so burnt everywhere, I just wanted to know that there was some part of him that wasn't burnt.

"And I was thinking, that for a young man, if that part is okay, he will be alright, he will have the will to survive."