- April 30, 2024
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A couple years ago I was baking brownies on a time crunch. Feeling rushed, I opened the oven and pulled the pan out quickly. But I misjudged the distanced and pulled up, my right arm meeting the red hot oven coils.
The burn was bad. But luckily, a friend with an abundance of medical supplies lived close by. I walked across the street and medic Ryan fixed me up with burn pads and all sorts of healing stuff. It healed, but I still have a giant scar from it.
Similar to my story, Palm Coast resident Michael Hopkins noticed that his wife, Sue, had a burn on her arm. When he inquired about it, he learned that Sue had burned herself on the oven coils as she was pulling a pan out and rearranging cookie sheets.
Neither mine nor Sue’s burn was severe, but oven burns send thousands of Americans to the hospital each year. In fact, ranges and ovens were involved in an estimated 17,000 burn injuries seen in the U.S. hospital emergency rooms, according to data from the Electrical Safety Foundation International.
Not willing to stand for his wife’s burns, Michael turned to his woodworking shop in his garage to create a kitchen tool to pull and push the oven racks and/or items in the oven.
His hope was to keep his wife’s hands and arms outside the oven.
After several weeks of trial and error, the final result was Aunt SueSue’s Oven Helper. The three-piece set which includes the helper, a recipe holder and a recipe can be purchased at www.auntsuesue.com.
This simple but effective hand-crafted tool has quickly become a fixture in my kitchen, as I am hoping to stay away from any future arm burns.
