A mum warned parents to teach their children about the dangers of kettles after her nine-year-old daughter was scarred for life – filling a hot water bottle.
Karen Albon, 45, had just put the Sunday roast on the table when she heard daughter Jasmine screaming from the kitchen.
The youngster had been filling up a hot water bottle after pulling a muscle in her back when she lost her grip and was covered in the boiling liquid.
Mum-of-four Karen quickly rushed Jasmine to the shower to cool her down but drove her to hospital after she turned “white as a sheet”.
Doctors at Nottingham Children’s Hospital used a piece of skin from Jasmine’s left leg to do a skin graft onto her chest.
The youngster is now recovering well after the ordeal which happened at the family home in Long Eaton, Derbys., on April 17.
Karen has now released shocking injury pictures showing Jasmine’s burns in a bid to warn other parents about the dangers of boiling water.
They show how the schoolgirl’s skin has blistered from the top of her chest down to the bottom of her stomach.
Karen, who lives with her husband Stephen, 49, a airport worker, said: “It happened in a flash and at the click of the finger.
“One minute everything was calm and under control and the next everything had changed.
“It was such a blur. The kettle was full and heavy because I’d boiled it to make the gravy and Jasmine was trying to pour the heavy water from the kettle into the smaller hole at the top.
“She was clutching the hot water bottle to her chest and the boiling water went all down her front, from the top of the chest right down to the bottom of the stomach.
“We never let Jasmine touch the kettle but she is getting much more independent. I think she had seen me fill up the hot water bottle and thought she could do it herself.
“In some ways it was lucky the water just burned her chest because it could have easily tipped over her face and head. It shows how everything can change in a split second.”
Jasmine had been taking part in a bridesmaid modelling shoot earlier that afternoon before playing on a friend’s trampoline where she hurt her back.
Mum Karen, who works in customer service at Asda, added: “She asked if she could have a hot water bottle to make her back feel better and I said I’d fill it up after dinner.
“But she’s started getting that little bit more independent and I think she just wanted to help out.
“I just want to tell parents never take your eyes off them for one minute because once it’s happened, there’s nothing you can do about it.
“I wish I could turn back time and in hindsight we’d all be so much better off but unfortunately these things do happen, particularly with the distractions there are these days.”
Surgeons at Nottingham Children’s Hospital, which is based in the Queen’s Medical Centre, used a piece of skin from Jasmine’s left leg to do the skin graft.
Jasmine said her skin graft went “really well” and her scars are now healing.
She added: “I tried to fill the hot water bottle up but because the hole is so small it kind of missed it. It hurt a lot and it still hurts at the top. I wanted to help my mum out.
“I had seen mum fill the hot water bottle before and thought I could do it was too heavy and it fell out of my hand.
“The water went down my top and it was so painful. I was really scared.”
Karen added: “The hospital has been absolutely brilliant. They’ve been so good with Jasmine and the surgeon has done such a brilliant job, the scarring is quite minimal.”
Andrea Cronshaw, clinical nurse specialist for children’s burns and plastics at the trust, said: “Technology in our lives can be fantastic; however, all too often it is the cause behind a distraction which causes life-threatening or life-changing injuries.
“Accidents can happen when children are near to danger and we are momentarily distracted.
“Turning attention to a television programme is a surprising forerunner to the momentarily action it takes for a child to pull a pan of boiling hot water over themselves.”
Becky Casterton, from Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service, also said: “Make sure children also know that the kitchen is not a play area. Never leave younger children alone in the kitchen when you’re cooking and never let them play near the oven and hob.”
According to figures released by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, almost 200 children under the age of five have been taken to the hospital in the past year after being scalded by hot drinks.
A further 79 youngsters were also treated for burns relating to cooking incidents, 45 for injuries caused by fires and heaters.
And almost 30 children had injuries caused by hair straighteners and 23 caused by irons.
