A mum has vowed never to drink a cup of tea in the same room as her son again - after the one-year-old suffered horrifying burns when a teapot spilled on him in a cafe. Carrie Doyle was on her way to playgroup with her son Mason when she decided to stop off for a cup of tea at St George's Restaurant in her hometown Gravesend, Kent.
The stay-at-home mum believes that Mason may have pulled the teapot over himself, scalding his legs, as well as his hands and stomach - though no one saw the accident occur. The poor tot faced a gruelling four-hour operation to perform a skin graft to the most severely burned areas of his legs.
The 38-year-old says that things could have been a lot worse had it not been for an off-duty nurse who happened to be present and was able to get the youngster under cold water. While no one knows how the accident occurred, Carrie says the ordeal has left her so worried about hot drinks that she will never have one around her child again.
Carrie said: "I was pushing the pram so a waitress said 'I'll bring it over' so I walked to an empty table with Mason and kind of parked him up at an angle. She's followed me over and all I heard her say was 'I'll leave this here'. Then by the time I looked at [Mason] and his face told me that something wasn't right.
"I bent down to him and I felt the heat coming off his clothes and that's when it dawned on me what had actually happened. I got him out of the pram and was screaming 'get him under water'. I literally threw him at the waitress behind the counter and she took him into the kitchen and put him in their sink.
"I ran back to the table to get my phone to ring an ambulance and then ran back in and took over taking his clothes and nappy off. It was absolute panic. He was screaming, he was hysterical. He's always been really laid back and calm for a baby and he doesn't cry so to hear those screams was heart-wrenching."
An off-duty nurse then stepped in to help Carrie care for her son while they waited for an ambulance. The mum-of-four says the kind passerby knew that Mason needed to be under the cold water for a minimum of 20 minutes and a maximum of 30 minutes and made sure this was done.
An ambulance arrived swiftly and took little Mason to Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford, Kent, where his burns were assessed, cleaned and bandaged and he was given pain relief. But due to the lack of a burns unit at the facility, Carrie was then forced to take the tot to Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, Essex, for further treatment.
Doctors determined that he would need a skin graft that he underwent in an almost four-hour-long procedure the following morning. Surgeons used healthy skin from Mason's right leg to graft the burn covering the majority of his left upper leg, as well as another area of burn on the back of his right leg.
Thankfully, the operation was a success and after four nights in hospital the tot was finally discharged and allowed to go home to his family. Carrie said: "I knew it was bad but I thought they were going to clean it, dress it and I'd be bringing him home, I didn't realise how bad it was until they started talking about surgery.
"There were a couple of areas that looked deeper than the rest and I had to sign there and then to say they could graft those areas but as it turned out they actually grafted the whole lot. Initially they said there were a couple of areas of concern that the graft had failed but they just wanted to leave it to heal on its own and thankfully it's looking like it's doing that.
"There's now just one area that is quite raw but they are quite confident that it's healing."
Mason had to return to the hospital for dressing changes every three days after his op, which has now dropped down to weekly appointments as his graft wounds continue to heal well. Carrie managed to track the off-duty nurse who helped care for Mason down on social media to thank her, who turned out to be a paediatric nurse in the right place at the right time.
Carrie said: "If it wasn't for her I don't know where he would've ended up. The doctors at Chelmsford all said her quick thinking and knowing those timings was essential. She was in the right place at the right time and thank god she was there because god knows how much worse that could've been.
"You just don't think it's going to happen to you but these things can happen in a split second. Since then a lot has changed - before this I never thought twice about having a cup of tea while he was running around but now I will not drink one in the same room as him."
The mum now hopes to warn other parents and draw their attention to the Children's Burn Trust where they can get advice on burn prevention and rehabilitation. To see the advice, click here.
A spokesperson for St George's Restaurant said: "The staff present that day were all deeply saddened by the incident and the trauma caused to Mason and the parents. The staff are thankful for the nurse that was present and helped them take control of the situation. We understand and pray that Mason will make a full recovery after all the surgeries he has undergone."
