An Australian mother-of-three wants to warn other families of the dangers of pressure cookers. Photo / Facebook / Cassie Hodges
An Australian mother-of-three wants to warn other families of the dangers of pressure cookers. Photo / Facebook / Cassie Hodges
An Australian mum's evening took a dramatic turn after her pressure cooker exploded, leaving her with severe burns to 12 per cent of her body.
Cassie Hodges was preparing to serve dinner when she heard the appliance click, before suddenly ejecting boiling hot soup all over the kitchen.
Now the mother-of-three wants to warn other families of the danger of pressure cookers, and is thankful her 13-month-old son, who she was holding in her arms just minutes before the incident, was unharmed.
Cassie suffered burns to 12 per cent of her body, but says it could have been much worse. Photo / Facebook / Cassie Hodges
"Two minutes earlier I was holding my son; my poor son could have been hurt," she told Kidspot.com.au. "We are lucky; I want to make sure this never happens to anyone ever again."
Following an agonising stay at the burns unit of Concord Hospital, NSW, Cassie still suffers severe pain and needs help from her husband, Mark, for a range of every day tasks.
"Mark has to feed me like a baby, hold me while I cry through the pain, and do everything else I need" she said.
The ordeal began after her husband prepared a pot of soup for dinner in the pressure cooker.
He set the appliance to the 'soup' option, and left it to cook for 25 minutes.
As their daughters, aged five and two, helped set the table, Mark released the pressure valve on the cooker, and steam had appeared to come out as normal.
But suddenly the lid had unlocked, causing the contents to release all over the couple.
Cassie's husband, Mark, received a deep burn to the stomach. Photo / Facebook / Cassie Hodges
. "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."
At the hospital, Cassie continued to scream in agony as nurses had to remove all the dead, burnt skin with a rough towel.
She was later told by doctors that if she had accidently breathed in any of the hot soup, medical staff would have had to put her into an induced coma in order to save her life. Her run to the shower had prevented her from needing skin grafts.
Following weeks of heavy medication for the severe pain, the couple are campaigning to have the same brand of pressure cookers recalled.
The incident happened while using a Casera pressure cooker, which the family had received as a gift in 2014.
Despite being upset over the ordeal, the family will make a full recovery.
