A woman suffered third-degree burns on her breasts after she fainted over a pan of boiling chicken and her skin ‘melted away’.

Abbie Reynolds, 29, had been chatting to her housemate Margaret Williams when she suddenly realised she was struggling to keep up with the conversation. 

The school psychologist’s vision went blurry, and she started to see ‘black spots’. 

Unable to blink them away, she figured she would go and lie down.  

Abbie said: ‘Margaret told me to go and sit down. The last thing I remember is walking towards the living room, but apparently, I stopped and turned to look back at the microwave that was above the stove. I blacked out and collapsed into the cooking food.

‘It was excruciating. I thought I was going to die. I have never experienced anything so painful and I honestly don’t think I ever will again. Not even childbirth will be as painful.’

She was rushed to MedStar Hospital in Washington DC where she underwent three surgeries.  

She was discharged after 20 days and is now learning to accept her burns and embrace her new body image.  

Opening up about the ‘life-altering’ experience, Abbie said: ‘I will never be the same person I was physically or mentally prior to the accident. That’s a really difficult thing to accept.

‘The first thing I felt when I saw my burns was shock, I’d never seen my skin look that way. It was grey.

‘Then I felt fear, I was completely freaked and scared of the unknown. But once I’d had time to process what had happened, I felt dread.

‘Once I was over the initial shock, I realised that I would be in for a long ride.  

‘Waking up after each surgery was one of the most difficult parts. It was so traumatic.

‘The severity of the accident has been an incredibly difficult thing to accept. You basically have to mourn your old body and old life while trying to accept and appreciate your new self and life.

‘But it has forced me to be kinder to myself and to appreciate my body for all the wonderful things it’s done for me.’

Abbie said the ‘massive’ scars have made her realise how much time she ‘wasted worrying about small stupid imperfections that nobody else would have noticed’.

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