An Irish woman sustained serious facial injuries after an oven cleaner splashed onto her skin at home.
Maura Prendergast from Mayo had no concerns using the Oven Pride brand oven cleaner having used the deep cleaning product before.
The 45-year-old Knock woman says she left the oven's wire racks in the bag with the cleaning solution overnight and went to finish the process when a small drop landed on her face.
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Mum-of-six Maura told GalwayBeo that: "I came home from work and thought I need to get the kids' dinner on, so got the bag and put it in the sink and just opened it as normal."
Maura said she didn't immediately realise that the liquid had landed on her face. The Mayo mum says she felt her face itch and immediately wiped the skin with a tea towel. Little did she know she had only spread the liquid.
Maura said: "It was really itchy but I carried on cleaning the oven and then my 18-year-old daughter came home and said 'Oh my God mam, your face is all black'.
"I went into the bathroom and looked at my face and just started to throw water at myself."
Maura who has trained with the volunteer Civil Defence, said she "didn't panic" and began to rinse her face.
But mam Maura ended up in A&E, where she was given antibiotics and saline to keep applying to her face. But she was soon rushed to the surgery in University Hospital Galway. She says the surgeons told her that her skin was still burning and that had cut away some of the skin on her face to stop the burn from spreading.
Over the next three-and-a-half years, Maura endured ten surgeries including failed skin grafts and a fat graft from her abdomen to fill the hole in her face. At one point, a surgery left her face in a 'vac pack', a device used to drain festering wounds.
The ordeal took a terrible toll on the brave mum's mental health. She said: "When I had the vac pack I just wouldn't leave the house. I didn't want people to see me and stare at me. I've always felt like I'm ugly anyway."
Maura once had piercings in the area left scarred by the ordeal but now has a tattoo of five stars, which she says help her feel more in control.
"My surgeon loves my tattoo, and since I've had the tattoo done nobody notices my scar, they talk to me about my tattoo instead.
"After going through all this, I feel like I've been given a second chance at life now.
"I feel like I'm finally happy, I'm engaged to a man I've known all my life, I've got six beautiful children, my mum and dad are good, I work in an amazing hotel and have great friends."
Oven Pride is a single-use, all-in-one oven cleaner and contains a bag into which heavily stained ovenware, racks and trays are placed with the provided 500ml of Oven Pride Deep Cleaner. The pack also contains one set of gloves and an instruction leaflet.
Oven Pride's instructions advise consumers to wear gloves and ensure arms and wrists are covered at all times when using the product and recommends people wear long rubber gloves.
Maura said: "Oven Pride is still on sale, and it says on the box to wear gloves and a mask and they give you gloves in the box, so why not put a mask in too."
"This was before Covid so people didn't have masks then, now we all have them, so there's no excuse.
"It shouldn't have been able to happen to me and if there had been a mask in the box it wouldn't. I just want to warn others to protect themselves so they don't have this happen to them."
GalwayBeo contacted Oven Pride and its parent company McBride. They declined to comment.
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