Boiling water: a warning to us all

BOILING WATER: Now aged 4, Te-arna Teokotai will need repeated surgery for the next 20 years. Her parents wanted this photo of her published.

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Christchurch woman says she lived a "mother's nightmare" hearing her daughters' screams after being badly burnt.

Toni Teokotai spoke about her family's ordeal as Safekids New Zealand warned parents to keep children safe by ensuring hot liquids were out of reach, and using fire guards.

In December 2007, Teokotai was at home with her daughters when she heard an "almighty bang" from the kitchen.

Her 18-month-old, Te-arna, had opened the oven door and climbed up, pulling the stove and a pot of boil-up on top of herself and her three-year-old sister, Jayde.

"Te-arna was basically a ball of steam, her skin was just pulling off her arms like a burnt sausage," Teokotai said.

The children were rushed to Christchurch Hospital and then to the Middlemore burns unit in Auckland, where more than 30 doctors were waiting.

Te-arna had burns to 45 per cent of her body and was put in an induced coma. Now aged four, she will need surgery for the next 20 years.

Jayde had burns to 10 per cent of her body, including her face which caused swelling to her throat, blocking her airways.

"Both were in danger of dying," Teokotai said.

"We were told numerous times when Te-arna was in ICU, that she wasn't out of the woods."

Teokotai wanted to spread the word to all parents to ensure their stoves were fixed to the wall so no-one else had to go through such trauma.

She had lobbied Housing New Zealand which said it would work to attach all stoves in its houses.

"It's definitely a mother's nightmare, the screaming to start off with," Teokotai said.

"The accident has made me a stronger person because I feel I have had to be. They are still here today, which is the main thing."

Safekids said six children were hospitalised with burns every week.

More than half of those aged one to two were admitted after being scalded by hot liquids.

"Hot water burns like fire, and young children who are severely burnt often require many operations and years of treatment," Safekids New Zealand director Ann Weaver said.

"Most child burns sufferers would have to deal with the pain and the consequences of disfigurement for the rest of their lives."

Christchurch Hospital consultant emergency physician Jan Bone said childhood burns were a "lifetime sentence".

The emergency department saw children who had pulled down kettles or hot drinks onto themselves, but winter was particularly bad because of children touching, or falling into heaters and fires.

Bone said parents should use fire guards.

"It's about risk management, planning to make your house a bit more childproof, because they are hard to watch."

STAYING SAFE: Tips for preventing hot water burns:Never hold a child and a hot drink at the same time. Keep hot liquids out of reach. Run cold water first when running a bath. Keep hot water from the tap below 55C.

- © Fairfax NZ News