A mum-of-three has suffered severe injuries after eating chips contaminated with caustic soda.
Karis Pringle bought the chips for herself and her nine-year-old son from a Chicken Treat shop in Bunbury, western Australia, in 2013.
After a long legal she has finally gained compensation.
As the pair began to eat the chips, she noticed an odd taste in her mouth, before her lips and all of her mouth began burning.
“She asked her son Kayne to taste the chips to see if they tasted funny. She thought the oil might have been off,” Western Australia District Court Judge Belinda Lonsdale said in a judgement.
She continued: "She started to feel funny so she drove back to the store. By the time she got back to the counter, her mouth and lips were burning."
Pringle asked staff at the store what was wrong with the chips and was told: "It’s a mild cleaning product. Go home. Wash your mouth out. You’ll be right."
The mother and son both went to A&E and were both admitted, before being transferred to more of a major hospital in Perth.
Pringle suffered caustic burns to her upper gastrointestinal tract and since the incident has been restricted to eating a bland diet due to the sensation in her mouth that she has described as being like “putting her tongue ‘on the end of a Nokia charger… it gives you a zap’”.
About three to four weeks after being admitted to hospital, the then-26-year-old began to get ulcers in her mouth.
“She described shards of skin coming off the roof of her mouth (something which she says is still happening today),” the court heard.
While her physical injuries healed, Pringle experienced pain and discomfort and suffered from poor mental health, which affected her ability to work.
The court also heard that Pringle no longer trusts other people touching or making her food.
She has suffered from anxiety and the incident has taken a toll on her social life. She no longer travels or goes camping, things she used to enjoy doing.
Tabloid Pty Ltd, which operates Chicken Treat Bunbury, initially denied responsibility and a trial commenced in 2019.
The trial was later adjourned and, in September 2021, Tabloid Pty Ltd admitted liability.
In her decision, Judge Lonsdale said she found Pringle likely suffered PTSD because of the incident, and left her “totally incapacitated” for work.
Tabloid Pty Ltd was ordered to pay Pringle $1.12 million (£611,000)
