East Lothian mum launches petition after traumatised toddler suffers horrific burns

Marina Diotaiuti, who lives in Musselburgh, had taken her then three-year-old son Nico to a birthday party at a sports centre in Edinburgh when he suffered severe burns after having two open cups of tea spilled on his back - now she’s launched a petition to change legislation.

Marina said: “Nico went to play with his nephew, and then literally, 30 seconds later, I just heard this scream. I was like, ‘What in the hell has happened in the space of this time? What happened?’ I turned around and he was all wet, and I was asked ‘why are you wet?’ I didn't understand what had happened. And I just saw someone standing there with two empty cups.”

Marina, her brother, who is a firefighter, and her sister-in-law rushed Nico to a bathroom where they poured cold water on his back, before taking him to hospital - where doctors were concerned about the severity of the burns.

However, due to his young age, doctors are hopeful that Nico will make a full recovery and have no long-lasting damage.

Marina said: “At first, they thought they weren't sure if it was like some of the burns were probably third degree but actually, having having assessed them after they've done all their stuff, they were like, it's mainly just second degree burns, and which in two three years, should heal completely, he should be left with nothing.”

Doctors were worried that the burns might be third degree | Marina Diotaiuti

Whilst he should make a full recovery, the incident left Nico requiring multiple hospital visits to redress his wounds.

Marina said: “He was in the hospital for a good few hours that day, and then we got let home, and then he was in the hospital every second day after that, for a week, getting redressed.

“It just kept coming off because of where it was on his back, and they obviously couldn't wrap it around and cut off the circulation, so keeping it attached was quite tricky. So he had to go back up several times to get it redressed, which was pretty horrific for him.”

Those hospital visits became more and more traumatic for Nico.

Marina said: “I think because he knew what was coming, he was terrified. Even driving up, he was screaming in the car. He was saying he didn't want to go to the hospital to get it done, and I was saying ‘we need to, you need to get this off. They need to clean it. We need to put a new one on’. It was horrendous, absolutely horrendous.”

Now Marina has launched a petition to get legislation changed that would make it a legal requirement for venues to sell hot drinks in takeaway cups with lids.

Nico and Marina at the beach | Marina Diotaiuti

Marina said: “Unrealistically, I hope that every venue that has any children in it that is primarily for them has safe safety measures in place for when you've got hot drinks. My only way of thinking is just to put them in takeaway cups. I feel if that had happened that day, Nico might have still got burnt, I'm not just not saying he wouldn't have, but it wouldn't have been as dramatic.”

Some venues such as Edinburgh Leisure already do this due to safety concerns, however it is not uniform across all private and public venues in Scotland.

Marina said: “I have spoken to a few private venues throughout Edinburgh and East Lothian, and they say, on the parental side of it, yes one thousand per cent they would want to change it. But as a business side, it's a cost factor for them, which I totally get as well. They need to provide takeaway cups, which then puts their coffee up. But surely parents will pay that extra 20-30p?”

Across the UK and both at the home and in children’s venues, 10,000 children a year go to hospital with a hot drink burn every day, according to the Children’s Burns Trust. The charity said 60% of all under 3 paediatric burn attendances to Accident & Emergency Departments are due to a hot drink burn.

Marina was surprised to learn after speaking to local MP Chris Murray that there was no legislation in place around the issue, now she is hoping that can change. It would take 10,000 signatures to get to that point, but Marina is hopeful.

She said: “It's had to happen to somebody, which has been my son, for a change to be put in place. The House of Commons got back to me because Chris Murray had sent it to them to find out exactly what legislation was. They responded to me saying, there they are looking into and they sent me all the legislation, but there's nothing, nothing in place.

“If this happened at a house, then that's a different situation. But this is a venue where there are children playing. They shouldn't be serving hot drinks, just in cups that you could just spill on a child.”