Girl, three, whose skin ‘fell off’ after accident with boiling water says she wants to become a nurse to help others

A three-year-old girl whose skin “fell off” her body after she accidentally poured boiling water over herself now wants to become a nurse following the care she received.

Donna and Steve’s daughter Nancy, now five, went to grab a cup after brushing her teeth in the bathroom of a London hotel – but unbeknown to her, it had been filled with boiling water by the couple to clean it.

Donna, 40, a nurse, and Steve, 44, a paramedic, from Cumbria, said Nancy went to undertake the “simple task” of rinsing her mouth but all they heard were “screams”.

They believe the shock of touching the hot cup caused her to tip the water over herself – and they then had the “horrific” task of removing her clothes to cool her down, and the skin “fell off her body”.

Teams from London Ambulance Service (LAS) and London’s Air Ambulance Charity (LAA) attended and assessed her wounds, before taking her to hospital, where she received treatment for 10 days in isolation.

Now, two years later, having made a full recovery, Nancy is at primary school and is determined to become a children’s nurse when she grows up, to help others.

Nancy told PA Real Life: “It is not nice to have to need their help, but they helped me with my pain and made me feel happier.

“If you ever need the help of the London’s Air Ambulance Charity team, then don’t worry and don’t be afraid.”

Donna and Steve, who do not wish to share their surname for privacy reasons, said their daughter Nancy is “a very active, lovely, caring child”.

She was born with Muckle-Wells syndrome (MWS), a rare genetic auto-inflammatory syndrome, and symptoms can include rashes, red eyes and joint pain.

She is now symptom-controlled and the condition is managed with injections at home, but in April 2023 the family had travelled to London for one of her regular appointments at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

It was on the last morning of this five-day visit that the “horrendous incident” happened in their hotel room.

Steve explained: “I helped Nancy with brushing her teeth and I moved out of the bathroom – then I heard her scream.

“What had happened was, we’d put some boiling water in one of her cups to clean it and put it out of the way, but she wanted to rinse her mouth out.

“She’d climbed up to get the cup and, as she went to grab it, we think the heat on the surface of the cup must have shocked her and she poured the boiling water onto her body, over her arms and torso.”

Donna added: “The screams from that bathroom, those screams will never ever leave me.”

With the couple’s medical background, they initially focused on cooling her body down and removing her clothes as her skin was “blistering” – but Donna described this as “traumatic”.

She continued: “In order to cool her, we needed to get the clothes off her – that was a horrific challenge in itself.

“We were literally watching the skin fall off her body and with that came more screams because we were inflicting more pain.”

Once her clothes had been removed, Steve placed Nancy’s body under cool water, while Donna rushed to the hotel reception to call 999 as their mobile phones were not connecting.

Donna then returned to the room, bringing some clingfilm from the kitchen, to wrap and protect Nancy’s wounds before paramedics from LAS arrived.

LAA’s advanced trauma team attended as well and, upon arrival, they found that Nancy had received effective first aid from her parents and LAS, but she was still in significant pain.

“It’s the helplessness,” Steve said.

“As a paramedic myself, as an advanced paramedic, I’m usually able to give drugs and enhanced drugs to my patients, but I was there as Nancy’s dad and I didn’t have any of that.”

In Nancy’s case, after assessing her, the team elected to give her fentanyl – a powerful painkiller – through her nose, which helped to calm her down.

She was then taken to The Royal London Hospital, before being transferred to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, and she remained in hospital for 10 days in isolation because of the severity of her burns and her MWS condition.

Nancy’s wounds had to be inspected, cleaned and redressed and, in the end, this had to be done under general anaesthetic to manage the pain.

She had sustained partial thickness burns, causing damage to the first and second layers of her skin.

After 10 days in hospital, Donna and Steve managed the cleaning of Nancy’s wounds at home and she experienced no infections and has been left with only minor discolouration on parts of her skin.

“It was an absolute relief,” Steve said.

“We knew that with the extent of the wounds she was lucky.”

Donna said: “You could beat yourself up forever because the incident should have never ever happened in the first place, Nancy should have never been put through that.

“But I think being open with Nancy and talking about it has allowed her to perhaps process what happened as well and deal with it in her own way.”

While Donna and Steve have experienced feelings of “guilt” following the accident, they said Nancy has made a full recovery and she has since spoken about becoming a children’s nurse.

The couple have praised the “fantastic” teams and aftercare, including LAS, LAA, Dr Cosmo Scurr, the patient liaison team and the play services at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital for helping Nancy through this “traumatic” experience.

They said they will be “forever grateful” for the services they received and hope the public continue to donate to LAA so it can continue to provide care to those who need it.

Speaking about their advice to parents, Donna said: “Don’t ever presume.

“Nancy would have never ever expected there to have been hot water in that cup and she went to undertake a simple task of taking a sip to rinse her mouth.

“So never presume that your actions have perhaps been fully understood by everybody … and, as a mother, never be afraid to speak up and advocate on behalf of whoever it is you’re caring for.”