12-year-old girl left with severe burns after poached egg exploded in her face

12-year-old Kadie Law, from Lancashire, was trying to fix a snack for herself. She decided to make a poached egg using a technique she had seen on the internet. The hack involved putting an egg into a cup of boiling water and cooking it in the microwave for 90 seconds. She had seen her mother previously using the same method to poach eggs before.

Internet hack gone wrong

What Katie didn’t know was that the heat settings on the microwave were higher than usual. So, when she took the cup out of the microwave, the steaming hot egg exploded all over her face. Kadie told Lancs Live:

It went straight on my eyes, I'm lucky not to be blind. It's the most painful thing I've ever experienced.

When she screamed, her parents put her face under a cold shower for 40 minutes while she prepared to go to the hospital. Kadie's mother, Kirsty said:

I left her under there for 40 minutes while I packed her a bag and wet a load of towels and blankets to take in the car where she lay with them on her face.

It was a 30-minute drive to hospital. I was surprised by how calm Kadie was, she wasn't complaining of pain, while I was frantic

Upon reaching the burns unit, the staff immersed her into a large bath and afterwards, a nurse scraped off the top layer of her skin, which was filled with blisters. They then applied olive oil all over the affected area. Kirsty added:

They used a silver bandage on her forehead then we had to apply olive oil three times a day all over the burns.

The aftermath

This incident took place in October 2020, but Katie is living with the consequences of the explosion today. After getting burnt, she has been advised to stay out of the sun for the next two years. Katie is not allowed to venture outside between 11 am and 4 pm, and she has to wear SPF 50 every single day. Her mom continued:

She can't go out in the sun. For the next two years Kadie will need to wear factor 50 sunscreen, has to wear a hat and she also has to put an emollient cream on twice a day. She is not supposed to go out between 11am and 4pm.

She can't wear make-up either, which she absolutely loves.

For those who are still adamant to try the hack, Kirsty warns against putting boiling water in the microwave and suggests using a lower heat setting. But given what has happened to Kadie, maybe you should just stick to poaching your eggs in a saucepan.