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A Sainsburys coffee shop worker whose hand was badly burnt in a hot fish fryer after she was given a broken cleaning tool has received compensation for her injuries.
The 31-year-old from Port Tennant was left having to put nappies on her one-year-old son with just one hand after the accident at Sainsburys in Quay Parade, Swansea.
Now after support from Thompsons Solicitors she has received more than £13,000 in damages.
The mother-of-one was injured when, unknown to her the scraper provided to clean a ledge on the fish fryer at the supermarket’s coffee shop had a screw missing from the plastic handle.
Her right hand slipped off the handle and down into the fryer’s fat badly burning her thumb and hand.
Her hand was bandaged up for five months meaning she was unable to return to work. In the end she lost her job.
Although her hand has healed well, she has been left with a small scar on the surface and has been told she has significant scarring under the skin. She has suffered from anxiety and depression, including flashbacks, for which she has received counselling.
Instructed Thompsons Solicitors to pursue a claim for compensation
Following the accident she instructed Thompsons Solicitors to pursue a claim for compensation.
Thompsons argued that she should have been provided with appropriate equipment for the job including protective gear for her hands and arms.
Sainsburys admitted liability and settled the claim out of court.
The injured woman said: “The accident seemed to happen in slow motion. I was cleaning the fryer like I did every evening and the next minute my hand was in the fat and I was in agony. For a while I couldn’t believe it had happened to me and I couldn’t think how my hand had ended up in the fryer when I had done this job many times before. It only became clear later that the scraper was broken and no-one had thought to warn me or replace it.
“The next few months were a real struggle. I had to learn how to change nappies with one hand. Coping with a young baby whilst having an injury like this was difficult.
“I’m grateful for Thompsons’ help. I wouldn’t have known where to start in claiming compensation for the time I had lost as a result of being off work.”
Alex Harvey from Thompsons Solicitors added: “You don’t muck around with deep fat fryers and yet Sainsbury’s allowed this cleaning procedure to go ahead without any kind of protection and broken equipment.”