Woman's hot water bottle explodes, leaving her body parts scarred and painful

Whether it is to warm up your body in cold weather, or to ease pain, especially period cramps, hot water bottles can be just the trick to feel better. However, they can also be dangerous. Did you know hot water bottles have got an expiry date? Yazmin Hardy, a young woman from Manchester, found out the hard way, and ended up with life-altering injuries. Here's what happened to her.

Yazmin Hardy's hot water bottle exploded on her lap

Yazmin Hardy, a 27-year-old woman from Manchester, was suffering from painful period cramps when she used a hot water bottle, in the hope that it would ease the pain. She filled it to the top with boiling water, and went to lie down on her sofa. However, a few minutes later, the bottle burst open, pouring scalding-hot water on her legs, tummy, and hands. She immediately removed her ruined clothes and stepped into a cold shower. She told The Sun:

The pain was eased by the shower pretty quickly but it was a really sharp, boiling burning pain.

It turned out the cold shower is what you should always do after a burn, but her skin began to peel off. She went on:

The pressure from the shower was causing the skin to just fall off my leg and when I got out of the shower I had no skin there and it was bright red and more skin came off.

How to know when your hot water bottle is expired

Yazmin went to the hospital every day for the next two weeks, to have her bandages changed. Two months later, she can still see important scarring on her skin. She explained:

At first I thought it was my fault because I hadn't screwed the lid on properly but when I got home from the hospital, I had another look and there was a tiny split in the seam of the rubber bottle. My hot water bottle was out of date but at the time I didn't know about the dates in them.

There are a few things you should do to avoid going through Yazmin's ordeal.

First, you should never fill the bottle to the top, and you should only fill it with half boiling water, and half room-temperature water. According to Money Saving Expert, a hot water bottle is only viable for about two to three years before it can risk bursting. To check your bottle's expiry date, have a look at the funnel. This is where you should find a 'flower wheel', which contains the expiry date.

Read more:

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Man with severe burns receives a fish skin graft and the result is rather strange (PHOTO)

Sources used:

Daily Mail: You MUST know your hot water bottle's expiry date... as woman's old one EXPLODED leaving her private parts scalded and scarred

The Sun: GRIM TRUTH My skin fell off and I fear my vagina is scarred for life after ‘out-of-date’ hot water bottle exploded

Money Saving Expert: How to check your hot water bottle is safe