Mum Suffers Severe Burns in Pressure Cooker Explosion

A mother has suffered severe burns to her body in a pressure cooker explosion.

Mum Cassie Hodges was at her home in Goulburn along with her partner, Mark and 12-week-old son when the accident happened last Friday.

Her partner was making soup in the kitchen using a pressure cooker. He selected the ‘soup’ option on the pressure and walked away. Around 25 minutes later, Cassie walked into the kitchen holding her baby. Then she called out to her partner that the soup was ready, and she left the kitchen to put her son in the loungeroom to help her partner dish dinner before the accident happened.

Warning: Graphic Images

She posted the images of her horrific wounds on Facebook and told the story behind the injuries.

She said she told her two older children to sit with her baby as she walked back into the kitchen. Mark was letting the pressure valve off to release the pressure and the steam came out the top as it normally does.

Then suddenly, the unexpected happened. She wrote:

“Then I heard a click, suddenly I knew the lid unlocked and the next minute I was hit with something. The lid had unlocked and because it hadn’t finished releasing the pressure the lid flew off and the entire contents hit me like as if someone chucked a bucket of water at me, the noise of it was a loud sizzle.

“I immediately screamed. My partner was holding his stomach and he pulled his arm back and his skin was all peeled off, I removed my singlet and ran to the shower.”

They immediately called emergency services as Cassie sustained burns to majority of her arms, chest and stomach.

The next day, Cassie was taken to Sydney burns unit at Concord Hospital where her bandages were removed to expose large blisters and said she “never felt such pain” in her life.

“They then bandaged me up and now day 4 I’m laying in bed knowing It will be yet another painful night. I haven’t seen my girls since Saturday morning and my 12 week old son has been with a friend each day as we cannot look after him, my partner Mark has a deep burn to his stomach because he didn’t get into the water as he wanted me to be OK his is much smaller but still deep and very painful,” she wrote.

She said she decided to share her story to warn others of the dangers of pressure cookers. She added:

“I will be OK but I want to share my story, these pressure cookers are not safe.

“I want the one I used recalled and I want people to be aware of the dangers, we did nothing wrong the machine unlocked prematurely, it should stay locked and unable to be opened until the pressure is all gone.

“Please share this far and wide and throw your cookers out, or better yet, demand a refund.

“They are not worth it. 2 minutes earlier I was holding my son, my poor son could have been hurt.

“We are lucky! I want to make sure this never happens to anyone ever again.”

The post has now been shared more than 14,500 times.

Source: Dailytelegraph.com.au