My 7-year-old was severely burned with boiling water while trying to help me cook. A new procedure helped him recover in 3 months.

• Nora Gracia is a 43-year-old mother in Crosby, Texas.
• Her 7-year-old son, Jayden, burned himself taking a bowl of water out of the microwave.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nora Gracia, Jayden's mom. It has been edited for length and clarity.

After a day outside in August, my 7-year-old son, Jayden, and I came into the house so I could start getting dinner ready.

While Jayden watched TV in the living room, I chopped up some potatoes and carrots, put them in a bowl of water, and placed them in the microwave to cook while I went outside to do some laundry.

While I was doing laundry outside, I heard a knock on the door. I said to come out, but the knocking just carried on. When I opened the door, Jayden was there and was very calm — not even crying. He said he had burned himself. I thought it must have been just a small burn, as I couldn't see anything, and he didn't seem in any pain.

He pointed to his chest, and I said to him we'd take his clothes off to see. When I took off his clothes, the skin underneath just fell off.

As I went into shock, he seemed to snap out of his, suddenly telling me that he was hurting. He said his leg hurt. He said his privates hurt. And when I pulled down his pants and underwear, the skin just came off.

I put him in a tub with cold water

I started to panic. I didn't know what to do. I immediately thought about how in cooking shows, you're told to put cold water on foods to stop the cooking process. So that's what I did. I put him in a cold bathtub, then wrapped him in a towel and rushed him to the nearest emergency room.

Apparently, so I was told by Jayden, he heard the microwave ding and thought to himself that he'd like to help Mommy with dinner. He climbed up on the counter to reach the microwave, and when he grabbed the bowl, the boiling water tipped down his body.

I just felt completely helpless as I tried to think of ways to take the pain away. I couldn't just give him Tylenol to make it better.

When we arrived at the ER, they gave him morphine and cleaned and wrapped his wounds right away. I was told they couldn't treat his burns and would transfer him to Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital — the only pediatric burn-treatment program in Houston.

In Houston, the doctors said they were going to scrub all his burns to make sure he didn't get any infections. I was scared by how much this would hurt him but was told they sedate him for 30 minutes to scrub.

They asked if I wanted to be in for the scrubbing, and I declined. But I realized I had forgotten my phone, so I had to go back into the room while they scrubbed, and when I did, I saw the burns on his privates and got scared because they looked clear to me. The nurse came over to me and assured me privates heal very quickly. Sure enough, the next day, the healing process had already started.

The hospital used a new technology on him

During his treatment in the hospital, I was asked whether I wanted Jayden to have a skin graft or a new technology called epidermal autograft. She explained that with the epidermal autograft, they would take a small sample of skin and put it in a solution that would later be sprayed over the whole body. The recovery time would be faster, and they wouldn't have to use large portions of his "good" skin, so I jumped at this option.

The other benefit of epidermal autografts is that I didn't have to change any dressings at home, so after a week, he was wrapped up, and we went home to resume life.

The first thing he wanted at home was his accordion, he had told my husband. He said he had a plan for how he could play without hurting himself.

"I've been planning it all along," he said. "You can put pillows on my legs and chest, and my accordion won't touch me."

Music really helped him in his recovery. He plays every day. His teachers call him a prodigy.

In November, only three months after the accident, he was finally allowed to play at recess and during physical education again. He is doing really well. And I'm happy to see him being himself again.