Woman, 41, ‘watched skin rip away’ after hot water bottle exploded and left her with second-degree burns
A WOMAN has described watching her “skin stripping away” after a hot water bottle exploded leaving her with second-degree burns.
Andie Doherty, 41, was left with burns down her entire left-leg when she was filling up her £5 hot water bottle.
She was watching the TV and wanted to fill the bottle up as it was getting cold again so boiled the kettle and poured the hot water in.
But seconds later felt a scorching pain on her left leg and realised the water bottle had torn open.
She hobbled over to the sofa where she “swore and screamed like nobody’s business” before muscling up the strength to run a cold shower.
With her skin stripping away before her eyes, Andie called 999 and was rushed to hospital.
“As soon as it hit my legs I knew what had happened,” she said.
“My skin didn’t bubble it just started stripping away.
“I knew the best thing to do would be to run a cold shower but once I managed to get in there, the shower was too pressurised so it just kept tearing off the skin.”
She spent the next 11 days at Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester where she received treatment for her burns and was given physio.
Andie said she looked like a “barbequed ballerina” while she was wrapped in dressings and holding on to a bar in hospital, during physio sessions.
Andie, a pathology worker from Stalybridge, Manchester, described the “painful beyond belief” of her treatment.
“I was absolutely full of drugs because of the pain. The nurses had to bath me. But I’m quite stubborn and won’t let this get me down.”
Now back home, she wants to warn others of the dangers posed by hot water bottles.
Most read in News
“I’ve been using hot water bottles for a lifetime and nothing like this has ever happened,” said Andie.
“But I think it reached the top and just gave way. I didn’t have the cover on and I had my pj shorts on. Never take the cover off when you’re filling it up!
“Also I would advise people to wait a while before pouring the water in from the kettle.”