Two minutes after Cassie Hodges put her newborn boy down to serve dinner, a pressure cooker with boiling soup exploded causing devastating burns across her arms, chest and stomach.

The mum-of-three was transferred to the burns unit of Concord Hospital for treatment and wasn’t able to see her two eldest girls for days because of the unbearable pain and life-changing injuries.

Her partner Mark has been helping her with everyday tasks such as eating, with burns to 12 per cent of her body.

“Mark has to feed me like a baby, hold me while I cry through the pain, and do everything else I need” she said.

“I will be OK, but I want to share my story. Two minutes earlier I was holding my son; my poor son could have been hurt. We are lucky; I want to make sure this never happens to anyone ever again.”

cassie burn picture

Cassie bandaged up, and her partner Mark’s burn. Picture: Facebook.

‘The pressure cooker lid prematurely unlocked’

On Friday, June 17, Mark decided to cook some soup for dinner at home in Goulburn. With the family hungry and not enough time to slow cook, he decided to throw it into the pressure cooker.

He selected the ‘soup’ option and walked away.

After about 25 minutes Cassie walked into the kitchen with her 13-week-old boy Zac in her arms. She called out to Mark to let him know that the soup was ready.

Cassie walked out to put her son in the lounge room, and told her two older girls Olivia, 5, and Ruby, 2, to sit at the table before dishing up dinner.

“I walked back into the kitchen and Mark let the pressure release valve off. The steam came out of the top as normal. Then I heard a click, suddenly I knew the lid unlocked and the next minute I was hit with something,” she said.