The mother of a 1-year-old girl had the scare of a lifetime after a terrible accident with a common kitchen appliance left her infant with severe burns. Vanesa Herrera was making dinner in a slow cooker while her baby girl, Azra, was scooting around the kitchen in her baby walker. Tragically, Azra accidentally pulled the pot down from the kitchen island where it was plugged in. "In an instant, everything just kind of changed," she said. Now the mom is sharing her story with the world, in hopes that other parents will learn from her mistake. Instead, many are shaming Vanesa for what happened, though the mom tells us that she won't accept the judgmental opinions of others — let them keep her from trying to raise awareness.
Vanesa explained that she had slightly changed her routine when Azra ended up seriously injured.
Vanesa, who's from Blanchard, Oklahoma, spoke with News 4 Oklahoma and explained how her daughter ended up being rushed to the emergency room. The mom said that she was cooking dinner as she usually does when the smallest tweak to her typical routine caused a dinner disaster.
"Usually, the routine is to put her in the high chair, give her a snack and then do whatever I needed to do but, this day, I put her in the walker," she said.
"The Crock Pot was still plugged into the island, and she got over there and pulled it down," she explained.
The piping hot juice from the meat cooking inside rained down on Azra, burning the little one and leaving her with second-degree burns.
"She made a little sound, but I think she was in shock," her mom remembered. When Vanesa saw what had happened to her daughter, she started yelling for help. Doctors were called and they instructed the mom to take Azra to Integris Baptist Children's Hospital.
Azra was later flown to a hospital in Dallas where doctors treated her second-degree burns.
As doctors treated little Azra, Vanesa said that she was overwhelmed with emotion.
"I was still trying to process what happened. It was scary," she explained. It took days for doctors to release Azra from the hospital, but at a check-up just days later the doctor told Vanesa that Azra would need to return to Integris Baptist Children's Hospital because she was malnourished.
"The burns had just sucked everything out of her," the mom said.
On October 9, Azra finally returned home.
But not everyone is cheering on Azra's speedy recovery. Instead, some are focusing on Vanesa and blaming her for not keeping a closer eye on her daughter.
But Vanesa tells us that she isn't bothered by what the mommy-shamers online say. "I know where I am as a mother," she says.
Speaking with CafeMom, Vanesa says that she has not read the comments on the coverage of her story so far, but she's been told by others that "the comments over what happened have been very ignorant remarks and quite a few have been racist."
"It was an accident. Accidents happen and they come in all forms," she adds.
Vanesa says that today is her daughter's first day back at daycare and admits that "it's hard as a single mom.
"The honest truth is in those photographs of her. I wish people would share the happier [photos] she has also and not just the bad," she says.
"I want others to see the warning and not just the negative," she adds.
And the strong mama even offered her advice to other parents who might have to deal with a dangerous accident like she did.
"To other mothers who come face to face with nightmares like this, keep heart," she says. "Stay mom. Make your child happy and keep them comfortable."
