Woman left with burns and lentils stuck on face after pressure cooker explodes

21 September 2023 , 13:53

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Woman left with burns and lentils stuck on face after pressure cooker explodes

A woman was left with severe burns and lentils stuck in her cheeks after a pressure cooker exploded in her face with no warning.

Nidia Rico was at home making lunch for herself and her boyfriend when the freak incident happened. struck. The 29-year-old was making lentils with rice and a brisket and claimed the product exploded and left her with severe burns. The incident happened at the end of May but she only recently shared the ordeal on TikTok - where the video racked up over 40 million views.

"I got up like every morning to prepare lunch for my boyfriend and me to take to work", Nidia, a publicist from Bogotá, Colombia, told NeedToKnow. She continued: "That day I was going to make a meal I’d been making for three years but this time I was using a different pressure cooker. My friends bought this one, supposedly it has an internal pressure seal that prevents it from exploding." She prepared and seasoned the food, put it in the pot and left it on medium heat for 10 minutes.

The aftermath of the incident where she was left with first degree burns (Jam Press Vid/@kathe_life)

Nidia Rico's face has luckily recovered well (Jam Press/@kathe_life)

She explained that she took out "all the air as I normally do" but it didn't come out. Normally, she said, the air comes out little by little, so she decided to leave it for a bit as it was not working right away. Nidia continued: "It was hard to open and when I finally I opened it, I heard an explosion, my face felt very hot, I was dizzy and I screamed. In those first seconds, I thought I damaged my face, I'm not the most vain person in the world, but it's my face! I started screaming and crying uncontrollably, my boyfriend who was getting ready to go to work, ran out of the shower to see me."

She said the lentils had stuck to her, so I washed my face with warm water, removed the food and went to A&E. Doctors found that Nidia was suffering with first degree burns on the left half of her face, with the most affected areas being the eyelid, cheek and the space between her mouth and nose. She was hospitalised for one day and recommended to stay indoors to allow her face to heal and avoid having the sun on her face.

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It has taken months for Nadia to recover but thankfully her skin has healed well, with only small spots left on her face from the burns. Her video has racked up over 2.5 million likes and it acted as a good warning to people who use pressure cookers.

Rachel Hagan