Lily is having weekly treatment at a specialist unit 90 minutes from her home
A girl was left badly burnt and will need weekly trips to the hospital after spilling McDonald’s hot chocolate into her lap. Lily Oldham, eight, was rushed to A&E with burns to her legs after the accident – and will have to return every week for fresh dressings as they heal.
Mum Levi said she was handed a tray full of drinks – five hot chocolates – with no warning how hot they were. They picked up the drinks at a McDonald’s drive-through in Pool, Cornwall on Tuesday, July 8. She handed one of the drinks to her daughter, but a few minutes later Lily let out a scream as she accidentally spilled the drink on her lap.
Levi told CornwallLive: “We get [hot chocolates] often, to drink while watching the sunset and they have always been drinkable. This occasion was different. I was handed the hot chocolates with absolutely no warning on just how hot they were.
“So as I normally would, I handed Lily hers. Five minutes later, Lily let out screams that will forever haunt me. She spilt the hot chocolate on her lap, causing significant burns. We made a trip to A&E where she was treated straight away.”
Levi said she was told by doctors that the burns were worse than they initially thought, so Lily is now under the care of the trauma burns unit at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth. She is also on antibiotics for an infection and has to make weekly trips to Derriford for dressing changes on her burns.
Levi said Lily hasn’t been able to play, walk properly or even wash properly because of her burns. Levi said she had to take time off work to make long trips from their home in Camborne to Plymouth – a 90-minute trip one way.
Levi said: “It’s had quite an impact on her. She’s waiting for food to cool down quite a lot before she eats it, which is not normal for her. She’s normally quite a good eater so [the accident] has affected her mentally.”
Levi said she is angry that they were not told how hot the drinks were. “The thing is, we’re regulars, we often go and get a hot chocolate but it has never been a problem and Lily will hold it until it has cooled down but I didn’t even think about how hot it was,” Levi said.
“I’ve gone through the guilty stage but now I’m just angry. We were given it without a warning about how hot it was and I’m just hoping [Lily] can recover from this mentally because she’s putting on a brave face but it’s been having an impact on her.”
Levi said the McDonald’s restaurant offered Lily a free drink, which they declined.
She contacted McDonald’s head office to report the incident so it could be investigated. “I have spoken to the head office and I rang the Pool McDonald’s and they offered us a free drink but at the time, we weren’t actually aware of how significant the burns were,” Levi said.
“It wasn’t until we went to hospital and Lily was tested for toxic shock were we told the burns went a lot deeper than we thought. Without sounding too dramatic, toxic shock can be fatal so it was quite worrying really. She just wanted a hot chocolate.”
A McDonald’s spokesperson said: “We’re very sorry to hear about this customer’s experience. Customer safety is of the utmost importance to us, therefore we provide warnings about the hot contents of our hot drinks both on the lids and the cups themselves. We believe that the customer is now in touch with our customer services team who are assisting with a resolution.”