“It Just Blew Up” — Mom Issues PSA Heating Water in Microwave After Daughter Sustains Burns

If you're using your microwave to heat cups of water, you may want to think twice about doing so. Kristen Beamer (@marleysroselife) shared a video breaking down how her water sustained first degree burns on her face while doing so.

The most frightening part is that the cup of water her child was heating up, gave no signs that its contents were hot enough to cause so much pain.

Kristen begins her video by sharing the sequence of events that led to the scary accident involving her daughter, a cup of water, and a microwave. "36 hours ago on Sunday night, our Microwave cost us a trip to the ER and another trip to the eye doctor. I didn't share this when it happened because I'm only sharing it with Polly's permission. And she said in case it can help someone else to share it."

Next, Kristen states: "Polly was getting ready for bed. She was gonna make herself a cup of tea. She put water in a coffee mug and put it in the microwave. Same way she does, every single day. This is not something new. I was standing in the kitchen about 10 feet away from her. She takes the mug out, she puts it on the stove, she has her tea bag. And she drops it into the mug."

However, once her daughter placed the tea bag in the cup, the water reacted violently, exploding right out of the cup and onto her face. Thankfully, Kristen worked quickly to cool the child's face down.

"When she dropped the teabag it sounded like a gun went off. The water exploded up from the mug right into her face. I ran over and I picked her up by her armpits and I pulled her into the bathroom as quick as I could, put her face into the sink and just started splashing it with the cold water.

Kristen explained further in a text overlay as to why she acted in this way. "A burn will continue to burn into deeper layers of the skin, if not stopped with cold water," she wrote.

"Just splashing it and splashing it. We did that for a few minutes, then Kevin ran her down to the emergency room."

She went on: "After they left to go to the hospital I prayed. I prayed the whole time that her face would be OK. I prayed that her eyes would be OK. Then I went over and I looked in that coffee cup sitting there. I mean it was dry. It was dry. The tea bag was a good 8-10 inches away from the cup. I mean it blew it out of it."

Kristen further explained how astounded she was to see the cup completely devoid of liquid. That's because the water was so hot, that it evaporated once that surface tension was disturbed.

Thankfully, due to her quick thinking, her daughter's face was okay.

"To blow a whole cup of water out. Everything was dry, it was that hot. It just blew up and it evaporated. We are so blessed, I believe 100 percent splashing the cold water instantly onto that burn is what saved her. It could've been so much worse. Her entire face is only a first-degree burn," the TikToker stated.

"They compared it to a sunburn but I can tell you the pain from an actual burn of having boiling water cover your face is different than a sunburn. Around her eye and up in her hairline and some on her finger, is second-degree burns. And last night she developed a little blister inside her eyelid."

Consequently, Kristen said that this prompted her to take her daughter straight away to the eye doctor to ensure there wasn't significant harm inflicted to her eye. "So we went to the eye doctor today but they said that there's no damage to her eye."

At this point in the video, Kristen went on to highlight where things can go wrong for folks who microwave water in a microwave. Furthermore, she cautions against warming up one's water in this fashion and shares how these concentrated heat pockets of water can culminate in an accident akin to the one her daughter suffered.

"I do think most people are aware of the dangers of heating water in the microwave but in case you don't. The way a microwave is when it heats the water molecules, it excites them, really quickly. And sometimes, that water becomes super heated which, it's hotter than boiling. But it doesn't boil."

Kristen stated that the physical nature of the water wouldn't lead anyone to believe that it was extremely hot. Because of its placid nature, folks may simply think that the water itself is completely fine.

However, due to a combination of the "superheating" phenomenon that she referenced, coupled with the surface tension of water, the water is primed to "explode."

"It doesn't even look like it's doing anything. It's just still. When you take that water and you disturb the surface when she drops her tea bag in, it causes this rapid boil instantly which results sometimes in an explosion. She is OK, it's been very painful. And she's been so tough through it all."

She capped off her video by stating that she shared the following information in an attempt to hopefully prevent anyone else from having to deal with the same issue as her daughter.

"I wanted to share for anyone else who didn't know that was a thing."