A mum is urging Christmas cooks to always wear shoes in the kitchen after boiling hot goose fat burned her feet so badly she needed skin grafts. Rebecca Evans was rustling up a Sunday roast and popped goose fat into the oven to heat up to ensure she cooked perfect crunchy-on-the-outside, fluffy-in-the-middle roast spuds.
Distracted while chatting to her daughter Katie Evans, the 51-year-old left the luxury oil in the oven for 20 minutes before getting it out to pop the par-boiled potatoes in.
The hairdresser put the sizzling hot tray on the hob of her cooker when it suddenly unbalanced and toppled forward. Acting on instinct, the mum-of-two reached forward to push the tray back on top of the cooker just as the super-hot fat splashed out onto her left hand and both feet.
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Rushing to put her hand under the cold water tap, 24-year-old Katie – who had just undertaken a paediatric first aid course – ushered her mum to the shower so she could submerge her feet. The primary school teacher then gently wrapped the burns in cling film before rushing Rebecca to hospital where doctors popped and scraped the blisters before applying antibacterial gel and burns dressings.
Rebecca Evans, 51, at hospital with bandaged hands and feet after being burned by boiling hot goose fat -Credit:Kennedy News and Media
Given the severity of her injuries, Rebecca was referred to a specialist burns unit where she underwent a skin graft on both feet and was forced to take five weeks off work. Two months on from her ordeal in September, Rebecca is urging cooks to wear footwear in the kitchen, especially ahead of Christmas, so they don’t have the same agonising experience.
Rebecca, from Maidstone, Kent, said: “It’s instinct to stop something falling, I put my left hand out to stop it. When the oil hit my skin it was very painful, imagine pouring boiling water over your hand.
“That made me jump back and then it fell. As it fell to the floor the oil splashed out and went on both of my feet. I normally would be wearing slippers but I only had thin trainer socks on, so I don’t know why I wasn’t.
“I rushed over to the sink to put my hand in cold water. My feet didn’t really hurt because I now know the burns had burned through the nerves, it had gone so deep I couldn’t feel it. Both my feet were completely white, which basically means it’s already done a lot of damage.”
Gran-of-three Rebecca was making a roast chicken and beef dinner when disaster struck on September 22. Having parboiled the potatoes she was waiting to tip them into the hot goose fat for roasting when the roasting tin tipped over.
Rebecca said: “It was a Sunday and I was doing my usual roast dinner. I’d done quite a lot of cooking that day, I had scones and other bits and pieces on the side. The best roast potatoes are when the fat is super hot. I put the fat in the oven to heat up, I had the potatoes on the hob ready to go into the oil.
“I was chatting and I lost track of time, it ended up being in there about 20 minutes in the end. I got a bit sidetracked and thought ‘I need to get the potatoes in’ so I got it out of the oven.
Rebecca Evans’s hand bandaged up after getting burned with boiling hot goose fat -Credit:Kennedy News and Media
“I didn’t have anywhere to put them so I thought ‘I’ll just put it on the hob next to the potatoes and as I let go of it it just tipped. I ended up with hot goose fat on my left hand and both of my feet.
“I spent half an hour in the shower before we went to A&E. I had to have skin grafts, I did it properly that’s for sure, I’m dealing with the scars now. If my daughter hadn’t done the first aid treatment she did it would have burned through to the tendons and my bones, so I would have been in a lot more trouble.”
At Maidstone Hospital’s A&E department staff scraped off the blisters before soaking her hands and feet in antibacterial gel-soaked dressings.
Rebecca said: “They took all the blisters off, it was painful, then dressed the burns. They don’t grade burns anymore. The burn on my hand was partial thickness, but my feet were full thickness burns – it had burned all the way through all the layers. At that point they said ‘you’re going to need skin grafts’.”
After tackling infections with oral and IV antibiotics, Rebecca had skin grafts on her feet at Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead on October 4. Rebecca said the excruciating experience made her more apprehensive about cooking, but she made sure she was back in the kitchen as soon as she was able to.
Rebecca Evans, 51, who needed skin grafts after being burned by boiling hot goose fat -Credit:Kennedy News and Media
Rebecca said: “It’s made me more apprehensive about cooking but I made sure that as soon as I could I did a roast dinner because I didn’t want this to become a phobia. Now I’m very aware of the room around me and needing somewhere stable to put things, you just think about what you’re doing before you do it.
“I’ve got grandchildren and it just makes you realise how easily that could have been a horrific accident if it had splashed all over them. I would advise anyone cooking to always wear footwear in the kitchen. The socks made it worse because the oil soaked in and sat there.
“Had I been wearing something more substantial it would have cooled by the time it got to my skin. I’ve realised since having the burns that more people than you think wouldn’t have a clue how to administer first aid to burns.
“Those first few seconds are the most important. I knew to put them under cold water but I didn’t appreciate for how long. I would have only done 10 minutes, but I was in the shower for 30 minutes.”