Coronation Street acid attack: Meet the Leeds nurse who helped bring Ryan Connor's acid burns to life

Ryan was left with severe burns after evil Justin Rutherford threw acid at him, while his intended target was Daisy Midgeley. In tonight’s episode, Ryan tells the surgeon he’s ready to look at his injuries – before going missing after being told he is not healing as doctors had hoped and he needs a skin graft.

And a Leeds nurse, who has played a pivotal role in the ongoing storyline, said he has been “blown away” by the soap’s portrayal of acid burns. Paul Blakemore is the Charge Nurse for the Regional Burns Unit at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield. He works with a team of nurses on a daily basis to deliver care for people who have been burned, from admission to discharge and through the burns dressing clinic.

His ward has had 11 patients with acid or alkaline attacks from 2017 to the end of 2021, and when the Coronation Street team asked him to advise them on the storyline - and work with them on set - he jumped at the opportunity.

Paul said: “It was important for me to get the accuracy right because in the 90s I used to watch American medical shows, and as a medical professional, I was so critical watching them. I wanted to do as much as I could to get it right for Coronation Street and for the show to be accurate.

"It’s been absolutely fantastic and I can’t tell you how much I have enjoyed it. Everybody has been so welcoming and appreciative and it’s meant a lot to me to represent the care that we provide in the Burns Unit in my day to day job. The storyline has shown what we do in the Burns Centre day in day out everywhere and it’s been fantastic to show what we do.”

Paul, who also worked on Coronation Street for a day last year when the character Ed Bailey got an electrical burn on his hand, worked with the makeup team to advise them on the colouring and position of acid burns. The nurse said he was “blown away” by how accurate Ryan’s prosthetics looked.

He also advised Ryan Prescott, who plays Ryan Connor in the soap, worked on set to dress Ryan’s wounds and helped to develop the dialogue to ensure the right terminology was used between Ryan and doctors.

Paul added: "Any kind of medical conditions that are highlighted on television are a good thing because it brings the general public more information about them, especially when it is shown as accurately as this storyline is.

"An acid attack is a horrible thing and we hear about them infrequently but it’s not like someone breaks an arm and once it heals you can’t tell. Once you’ve been a survivor of an acid attack and an assault like this, it’s with you for life and the psychological impact is massive. For Coronation Street to highlight this, is really very good.”