An eight-month-old baby was taken to Alder Hey Children's Hospital with serious burns on her hand and leg after a jug of hot gravy was placed in front of her at a pub. Mum Catrin Griffiths, 29, fears her daughter will be scarred for life after the accident while out with family.
Accident at the pub
Eight-month-old Neli Hughes was sitting at the table when a waitress brought meals out. Catrin says the waitress accidentally placed a hot gravy boat on her daughter's placemat. She says Neli instantly put her left hand into the jug and 'yelped' and as she removed her hand from the hot liquid, spilling the rest on her leg.
The nursery worker grabbed her screaming baby, stripped her from her gravy-soaked clothes and placed her daughter's hand under a cold tap for 10 minutes. The mum-of-two then wrapped Neli's hand and leg in a damp muslin cloth and took her to A&E at Ysbyty Gwynedd Hospital in Bangor, North Wales.
Hospital treatment
Due to the severity of her burns, Neli was transferred to Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool, Merseyside. There, the dead skin was scraped off her burns before they were covered in gel and dressed in gauze to help them heal.
Catrin claims the doctor said her daughter had suffered a third-degree burn on her hand and a superficial burn on her left leg. Although Catrin views the accident as a 'silly mistake', she's now warning people not to place hot liquids in front of babies or small children to avoid the same thing happening again.
Mother's warning
Catrin, from Bangor in North Wales, said: "The waitress started bringing the food out. She brought out a hot jug of gravy and she placed it on Neli's placemat so it was directly in front of her. It was a silly mistake that she [the waitress] did this. You would never put a pint of beer or cup of tea in front of a baby, so why would you do this?"
"The gravy was placed in front of her and within a split second she submerged her hand into the jug. She then realised it was so hot and yelped. She took her hand out quickly but then knocked the jug down herself causing burns on her leg."
"When it's your child and it happens so quickly, you go into a panic. I stripped her clothes off her as they were covered in gravy."
"She was screaming for so long. Her hand was red and raw looking, it didn't blister for 20 minutes. At this point [at the hospital], her hand was swollen and blistered and some of the blisters were popping. She was screaming and in agony."
"I was heartbroken and I felt so useless as I couldn't do anything but to sit and wait and watch her in this pain, it was awful."
Ongoing care and fears
Since the incident, Catrin has taken Neli back for check-ups and to get her dressings changed. Catrin fears Neli may be left scarred for life and says she'll have to be careful in the sun from now on. Catrin said: "She does have a lot of scarring on her hand now and they don't know if this will heal or not. When she gets into the bath her hand changes colour and goes really red, we have to watch her in the sun as it was such a bad burn."
Now, Catrin is raising awareness about the dangers of placing hot items in the reach of kids. Catrin said: "I would just say, you need to be really careful and think before you put things down in front of a child. Make sure you put hot things further away from children."
"It's not even just hot things, you wouldn't put a knife and fork in front of a baby, due to the danger it carries. When they get to this age, they're so inquisitive and want to learn so they're constantly touching everything and picking things off the ground. They're into everything. If this had never happened to Neli, I wouldn't have thought this was something to worry about."
