MOORE, OK (WCMH/AP) – An Oklahoma woman is recovering from third-degree burns to her thigh caused by hot pennies that spilled in her sport utility vehicle on a scorching summer day.
Melissa Sechrist says a cup of spare change spilled onto her seat in Moore, Oklahoma, last week, and the scalding-hot pennies came into contact with her leg. She tried icing the wound, but she went to a hospital over the weekend after the pain didn’t subside.
Sechrist tells Oklahoma City television station KWTV that the coins caused third-degree burns on the back of her thigh.
“Excruciating pain. It was just horrible pain I’ve never felt before in my life,” Sechrist said, adding that it is still painful to walk, sit or lie down because of the injury.
According to the National Weather Service, the heat index was 104 degrees on the day Sechrist suffered the burns.
Third-degree is the most severe on the medical scale. Those types of burns are capable of melting skin, damaging nerves and harming the underlying muscle.The Associated Press contributed to this report.