The mother of a young girl who ‘went up like a Christmas tree’ after her knock-off ‘Oodie’ caught fire has urged parents to bin highly flammable dupes bought on Temu.
Daniella Jacobs-Herd, eight, suffered third-degree burns to her hands, arms, chest and face when embers from a firepit set the cheap Chinese replica alight on July 13.
Her terrified sister and father rushed her under the shower as chunks of her skin began falling off while her mother, Hannah Jacobs, called triple-zero.
Daniella, who suffered burns to 13 per cent of her body, was airlifted to Hervey Bay Hospital where she has undergone 15 procedures in less than eight weeks.
‘The journey is only just beginning because now she’s starting to process her burns,’ Ms Jacobs told Daily Mail Australia.
‘[The nurses] are slowly reducing the dressings each time they change them so she’s seeing more and more of her burns.
‘And there’s trauma related to that because she remembers the skin falling off. She doesn’t think she’s going to be beautiful again.’
Ms Jacobs has urged parents to dispose of any cheap dressing gowns they own, warning: ‘It’s not worth the trauma, throw it in the bin’.
Daniella Jacobs-Herd, eight, suffered third-degree burns to her hands, arms, chest and face when embers from a fire pit lit the gown on fire on July 13
Daniella suffered burns to 13 per cent of her body following the fire at her Queensland home
Daniella (pictured with her mother Hannah) has undergone 15 procedures in eight weeks
She says daughter was given the lilac-coloured knock-off nightwear for her birthday.
But it was purchased on Temu, a popular online Chinese retailer, rather than from the Australian original Oodie store where all products meet strict Australian safety standards.
‘I’ve spoken to parents in the burns unit and there’s so many kids who get burnt every month from [items purchased from] cheap brands,’ she said.
‘They don’t say anything about them being so highly flammable, they just say not to put them in the dryer.
‘She was just standing near a fire and there was a bit of wind and its goes up like nothing. It melted to plastic onto her skin.
‘We’ve thrown away every single one we own, we had all different types of [hoodies] and we’ve thrown every single one away.’
Daniella’s surgical team told the mother-of-two that knock-off dressing gowns like her purple one from Temu were notorious for burn injuries.
‘I was very hysterical in the first few days and they were telling me that it happens quite a lot,’ she said.
‘It’s very common with these sorts of [fake] brands to catch on fire.’
To complicate matters, Daniella is methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) positive – an infection caused by a type of staph bacteria.
‘She has to be isolated in a room when she goes to hospital which any eight-year-old doesn’t handle very well,’ Ms Jacobs said.
‘She’s autistic and ADHD so in the early days she was ripping cannulas, catheters, feeding tubes out.’
The eight-year-old is currently receiving treatment for her burns at Hervey Bay Hospital
She had been wearing a knock-off Temu ‘Oodie’ when the dressing gown went up in flames
Daniella’s austism and ADHD has complicated her recovery
The mother-of-two said parts of Daniella’s recovery had been confronting.
‘She’s had moments where she’s been ripping chunks of skin off,’ she said.
‘She’ll sit there and hold my hand so she doesn’t scratch, but then she’ll scratch and you’ll get handfuls of flesh and blood. It’s been very, very overwhelming.
‘She’s been dosed out on painkillers so she doesn’t remember it, but it’s very overwhelming to have chunks of flesh in your hand at one in the morning.’
The family are staying at the Ronald McDonald House but are still paying rent and bills for their home in Hervey Bay, which they are yet to return to.
The cost of Daniella’s medications, food and new washing powders that won’t irritate her ‘baby skin’ has left the family struggling to make ends meet.
Ms Jacobs is on the NDIS and requires a walker or wheelchair to get around, meaning getting Daniella to her outpatient appointments can be difficult.
The family have started a GoFundMe to ease some financial pressures as Daniella awaits more skin grafts and further down the line, plastic surgery.
Ms Jacobs, her partner and their eldest daughter Ebony, 12, have all been diagnosed with acute stress disorder and are undergoing counselling following the incident.
Temu promised Daily Mail Australia they would launch a full investigation into the incident and said they hoped to hear from the family so they could offer support.
‘We are deeply saddened to hear about the accident involving Daniella and extend our heartfelt sympathies to her and her family during this difficult time,’ said a spokesman.
‘We want to assure them that we are taking this matter very seriously. Even though we have not yet received the purchase order details, we have already initiated an internal investigation.
‘Our teams are actively reviewing product listings and seller records related to the type of product involved in the incident.
‘We are committed to a thorough investigation and taking appropriate action.’
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