Urgent warning to anyone who uses a hot water bottle
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Hot water bottles perish over time so experts recommend you change them every two to three years. A woman has urged others to “never use” hot water bottles after her seven-year-old bottle exploded leaving her with third-degree burns. Karen O’Brien, a 52-year-old retail worker who lives in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, with her husband Daniel, 64, and their two children, suffered severe burns when her hot water bottle burst on her lap in March 2024.
![[The burns on O'Brien's thigh]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/20/9/01/01JJ18D9ZEMRYV5BXERS5ZZ7RT.jpeg)
The injury caused her skin to blister and peel away leaving “holes in the skin” that worsened by the hour. At Leicester Royal Infirmary Hospital, doctors removed layers of damaged skin to prevent infection. The burn left her with a large scar on her thigh and permanent skin discolouration.
![[O'Brien now has a large scar]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/20/9/53/01JJ18D98Q9G6DXVSF8VNVZ46G.jpeg)
O’Brien is now warning others to avoid hot water bottles, and if they are using them to check the age. Hot water bottles perish over time so experts advise to change bottles every two to three years. If you cannot remember when you bought your bottle, it will have a flower on or near the neck – the number in the middle is the year the bottle was made.
The petals represent months and the dots weeks, for example if there are three dots in the first petal it was made toward the end of January of that year. “I’ve never known pain like it, it was horrendous,” she said. “When I first could see the skin, I had blisters coming up straight away, and then you could see where the skin just melted away.
