A Welwyn Garden City teenager - who has a condition which affects the tissue in her body - went through a traumatic ordeal when her hot water bottle burst and burned the skin off her leg. 

Last Monday, just before 11pm, 18-year-old Georgia Hattam was given a hot water bottle by her mum Claire before heading to bed. 

As soon as Claire got into bed, she heard piercing screams from her daughter’s room, after the hot water bottle burst and scolded Georgia's skin.

Claire said: “She came out of her room and was literally hysterical. We took her pyjama bottoms off and her left leg from her knee to her foot, a little bit of her right foot and all over her groin, was just red raw.” 

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Claire phoned 111 at 11pm and was told an ambulance would be sent out. Soon after, the ambulance service called the worried mother and said there would be a delay of 120 minutes, and to keep pouring water on the wound. Welwyn Hatfield Times: Georgia Hattam from Welwyn Garden City suffered severe burns after her hot water bottle burst.Georgia Hattam from Welwyn Garden City suffered severe burns after her hot water bottle burst. (Image: Claire Hattam)

However, she was phoned a second time by the ambulance service, who explained there would be further delays. 

Three and a half hours later, Claire still did not see any signs of help and decided to drive Georgia to Lister Hospital in Stevenage at 2.30am. 

“We got to Lister, and they had to pop all her blisters, cut all the skin off her and then they dressed it. They spoke to us about a burns clinic and then around 7am, we came home.” Welwyn Hatfield Times: Georgia's leg after the blisters were popped and her skin was cut off.Georgia's leg after the blisters were popped and her skin was cut off. (Image: Claire Hattam)

Claire added "We were referred to district nurses to change her dressing every other day. But there were no district nurses, and no doctors had any appointments for nurses to change the dressing.  

“So yesterday (November 23) we went to A&E and they changed her dressing and told me it should've been changed within a few hours of being on her and because of that, a lot of skin on her leg had to be pulled off with the old bandages.” 

Today (November 25) Claire and Georgia will be going to the burns unit in Chelmsford.

“Georgia is traumatised," Claire continued. 

"She used the hot water bottle for her Ehlers-Danlos syndrome - a hereditary disorder that affects the connective tissues of the body. Now I've had to get her a heat pad instead because she will be safe with that. 

“We know the NHS is pushed to the limit but when we were at the hospital, there were 22 ambulances parked up with their patients in the back. A&E was manic, I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.

"It was shocking how long we had to wait for an ambulance, and I had to drive her there in the end. I wouldn’t want to go through this situation again where we must keep waiting for help when my child is unwell,” Claire added. Welwyn Hatfield Times: Georgia's leg that was left with severe burns from a hot water bottle.Georgia's leg that was left with severe burns from a hot water bottle. (Image: Claire Hattam)

A spokesperson from the East of England Ambulance Service said: “We would like to apologise to Georgia and her mother for their experience and we hope she is recovering well. 

“This was assessed as a serious incident by our call handlers. However, the NHS is under extremely high demand and we are sometimes unable to send ambulances quickly, even to patients with serious injuries, so that we can attend to patients with immediately life-threatening conditions. 

"We are working closely with our NHS partners to reduce handover delays at hospitals to get more ambulance crews back out into the community to improve care for our patients."