A teenager let out a piercing scream as she suffered horrific burns after her hot water bottle split open. Georgia Hattam, who is disabled, took a hot water bottle to bed with her after suffering with stomach pains.
The 18-year-old's mum, Claire, had filled up the hot water bottle for her daughter as normal. But the next thing she heard was Georgia's harrowing reaction as scalding liquid hit her legs.
It's feared that Georgia could now be scarred for life from the incident, having suffered devastating blisters, the Mirror reports. Now, a warning is being issued to all hot water bottle users to check if they are still suitable.
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Claire, a hospice health worker, said: "I came in from work at about 10.45pm and Georgia had been suffering with pains all last week, so I made her a hot water bottle up. She went to bed and I went to my room, but a few minutes later she let out this piercing scream."
Georgia had made her way out to the hallway and Claire quickly ripped off her daughter's pyjamas and raced to get cold flannels to cool her down, while calling 111 for help. Ambulance staff told Claire there was at least a two hour delay, and then later called backed to say the wait could be even longer as Georgia lie in pain and the angry blister got bigger by the minute.
With the help of a friend Claire from Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, managed to get Georgia down the stairs and drive her to A&E herself. Georgia was taken through a painful deroofing process to remove the blisters and skin and has since been referred to a burns clinic, as it is feared she could be scarred forever.
Claire, 47, said: "I have terrible mum guilt. Georgia is probably scarred for life and I was the one who gave the water bottle to her.
"We won't be using them ever again and have already told family to throw theirs out. All I can remember is hearing Georgia let out that piercing scream."
Georgia who has autism and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome - a group of rare inherited conditions that cause very flexible joints and stretchy, fragile skin - is at college studying Animal Management, as well as working part time at a trampoline park. She said the pain from the burns has been getting worse each day rather than better.
"You just don't think something like this will happen to you, until it actually does," said Georgia. "I just want other people to know about the dangers.
"Please, just get rid of them." Many people are turning to hot water bottles as a way to cut their energy bills, as the cost of living crisis bites.
Earlier this week consumer expert Alice Beer told This Morning viewers that she was contacted on Instagram by a parent whose child suffered third-degree burns after her hot water bottle had burst. Alice said how this had become a common issue, adding that a London hospital is seeing people with hot water bottle burns at least once a week.
She said: "Half of hot water bottle injuries need skin grafts and surgeries. These are not surface burns, these go really deep."
She added that a regular hot water bottle should last up to three years before people should consider finding a replacement. Alice also advised anyone with a hot water bottle to check its date of manufacture to see how long they've had it.
She even demonstrated how to find the date through a hidden code on the product. She said: "You don't know about it because this is a brand new hot water bottle in a fluffy cover.
"Why would you ever take it off unless it got dirty? I'm sorry, but I think this is the worst system for printing a date because it's so confusing."
She added: "Inside you have got a daisy wheel date. It's got 12 segments and in the middle of this one you have got a 22. This one was made in 2022. Then you have 12 segments around the outside and those are the months.
"You can tell the month it was manufactured from when the dots end. It's got dots in eight segments so it was made in August." Alice also added that people should remove the cover when filling it up so you can accurately check the condition it's in.
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