She And Her Family Were Admitted To The Hospital After Being Poisoned By Toxic Fumes From An Easy Bake Oven
If you grew up during the early 2000s, the most iconic toys that defined your childhood probably included Hot Wheels, Barbie dolls, Rubik’s cubes, and, of course, Easy Bake Ovens.
Hasbro introduced the Easy Bake Oven in the 1960s. Decades later, the beloved toy has stood the test of time, and parents still purchase it for their kids today.
Since it’s marketed toward children, you would think that the Easy Bake Oven is just a fun, harmless toy. However, it has the potential to be incredibly dangerous, and it’s not just because of the burn risks it has become infamous for.
Recently, a family of three was hospitalized after attempting to prepare a cake in an Easy Bake Oven. A mother named Stephanie (@steph_murphy) posted a video on TikTok explaining how she, her husband, and their 8-year-old daughter ended up in the emergency room due to a strange smell that came from an Easy Bake Oven.
It all started when Stephanie’s husband, Ryan, and their daughter, Nora, set up her new Easy Bake Oven for the first time. They were in the kitchen while Stephanie was in her bedroom.
As soon as they plugged in the oven, a weird smell wafted through the house. Ryan didn’t think much of it, assuming that it was because the toy was made of plastic. However, Stephanie noted that Ryan’s sense of smell and taste had been significantly affected ever since he had COVID three years ago.
The odor eventually went away, and the father-daughter duo proceeded to work on their two-layer red velvet cake. The dessert needed to be baked one layer at a time. While the first layer was cooking, the family played a game in the living room together.
Approximately 16 to 20 minutes later, Ryan and Nora went to check on the cake. They found it still undercooked and decided not to continue with the second layer. They unplugged the oven and threw the cake away without eating it.
About 45 minutes later, Nora began “complaining of chest pains.” She was also having trouble breathing, so Stephanie checked her oxygen levels with a pulse oximeter. Nora’s oxygen came back as 89, which was “very low.” They immediately headed straight to the ER.
Prostock-studio – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual people
On the way, Ryan also claimed to have “difficulty breathing.” When they arrived at the ER, Stephanie noticed that she was experiencing shortness of breath.
Once the doctors had examined all three of them, they believed that the family had carbon monoxide poisoning and had them tested for it, but the results came back negative.
In addition, the fire department was sent to their home to check the air quality. At that point, it had been eight hours since the Easy Bake Oven was unplugged, so everything was clear.
Stephanie’s symptoms were much less severe than Ryan’s and Nora’s, likely because she wasn’t in the kitchen when the Easy Bake Oven was on.
“Nora and Ryan both had compromised lungs and what looked to be pneumonia symptoms, versus my X-ray came back clear,” she said.
After being discharged from the hospital, her husband and daughter were prescribed steroids to be taken over the course of five days, along with an inhaler they needed to use every four hours.
It is unclear whether there was some sort of manufacturer defect of the product that needed to be recalled by the company or just a malfunction with the individual oven. Stephanie was shaken by what had happened to her and her family, reiterating that they hadn’t even eaten or finished baking the cake.
“If we baked the second cake, we would’ve then been exposed to it for another 20 minutes. What would’ve happened then? And what would’ve happened if we didn’t take my daughter seriously when she said she had trouble breathing?” asked Stephanie.
@stephsharesitall My husband, 8 year old daughter and myself all got admitted to the ER on saturday because of an Easy Bake Oven. Difficulty breathing, shortness of breath, chills, and nauseau. Nothing on Google showed anything similar, so was this a one off or have there been others? It was scary that we all got affected so quickly.
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