I watched tiny drop of Oven Pride cleaner eat away and burn a blackened chunk of flesh from my arm – The Sun

A MUM-of-three says she has been left scarred for life after just a tiny, pea-sized dot of oven cleaner touched her arm.

Liana Stott, 25, from North Walsham, Norfolk, was using Oven Pride on a cooker when she brushed her arm on the inside whilst removing a rack.

She immediately tried to wash it off but the grease-destroying chemical had already starting eating into her skin.

The professional cleaner was scrubbing a client's oven at the time.

Liana said: "I used the gloves they had in the packet, plus longer rubber gloves on over the top.

“When I got out the rack a little bit brushed my arm, and it started tingling.

“It was the size of a flattened pea, barely anything at all.”

Horror burn

She took herself straight to hospital where medics tried to rinse it, but she watched in horror as the chemical continued to burn a blackened chunk out of her flesh.

Liana said: “You could watch it eating away my flesh. I had no feeling in that part of my arm, it had eaten away at all of the nerves.”

When nothing improved, medics sent her to the specialist burns unit in Chelmsford, Essex, more than 100 miles away.

After several trips to the hospital, Liana was told she would need a skin graft after the chemical had singed the nerve endings in her right limb.

You could watch it eating away my flesh. I had no feeling in that part of my arm, it had eaten away at all of the nerves

“The doctors realised it was actually getting worse, it was spreading,” she said.

“It was really dead down to the muscle, they realised they had no choice but to do a skin graft.

“I was so scared, that every time they took the bandage off half my arm was going to be hanging off.”

She added: “I had never been in so much pain. I remember coming round from my anaesthetic and screaming my leg hurt so much.

“My arm wasn’t so bad, but with my leg they had just taken skin off. I have never felt anything like it, it was awful.”

Liana says her young children – aged two, four and eight – were terrified when she came home after the operation.

She said: “They were scared when I came home had these big bandages on. They weren’t allowed to sit with me and cuddle me.

“They look at my arm and can see that it’s always going to be there.”

Doctors told Liana she will be scarred for life after the cleaning incident on May 22.

She has to keep both her arm and leg out of sunlight for two years, and has weekly hospital appointments for years to come.

The burns unit said it’s the most dangerous stuff you can be burned with, worse than acid

“Oven Pride say you should wear extra protective clothing which is fair enough, but they don’t provide that,” Liana said.

“The burns unit said it’s the most dangerous stuff you can be burned with, worse than acid.

“If I can make one person make sure they are safe when using it, then some good has come from this.”

Dr David Barnes, from Broomfield Hospital’s burns unit, explained he often treats people burned with oven cleaner.

He said: “Oven cleaner is an alkaline, which means it behaves slightly differently to acid.

“When it gets under your skin it reacts with the fat, and turns it into liquid.

“It can get quite deep through the tissue, quicker than an equivalent strength acid.”

Oven Pride said: “I can confirm we have received a communication from Ms Stott, and the matter is now under investigation.”

Source: Read Full Article