Australian girl is nearly burned to death while wearing knock-off Temu ‘Oodie’ amid urgent warning to parents

The mother of a young girl who “caught fire like a Christmas tree” after her knock-off version of ‘Oodie’ caught fire has urged parents to throw away highly flammable counterfeit products bought on Temu.

Daniella Jacobs-Herd, eight, suffered third-degree burns to her hands, arms, chest and face when the cheap Chinese replica caught fire from embers in a fire pit on July 13.

Her terrified sister and father rushed into the shower as chunks of her skin began to fall off, while her mother, Hannah Jacobs, sounded the alarm.

Daniella, who suffered burns to 13 percent of her body, was airlifted to Hervey Bay Hospital, where she underwent 15 procedures in less than eight weeks.

“The journey has only just begun as she is now starting to come to terms with her burns,” Ms Jacobs told Daily Mail Australia.

‘[The nurses] They use fewer and fewer bandages when they change them, so she sees more and more of her burns.

“And there’s a trauma attached to that, because she remembers the skin falling off. She doesn’t think she’ll ever be beautiful again.”

Mrs Jacobs has urged parents to throw away any cheap dressing gowns they own, warning: ‘It’s not worth the trauma, throw it in the bin’.

She says her daughter received the purple faux nightgown for her birthday.

But it was purchased from Temu, a popular Chinese online retailer, rather than the original Australian Oodie store, where all products meet Australia’s strict safety standards.

‘I’ve spoken to parents in the burn unit and there are so many children who get burned every month by [items purchased from] “Cheap brands,” she said.

‘It doesn’t say that they are so flammable. They just say don’t put them in the dryer.

‘She was just standing by a fire and there was a little bit of wind and it went up like nothing. It melted into plastic on her skin.

We threw away everything we owned, we had all kinds of different [hoodies] and we threw them all away.’

Daniella’s surgical team told the mother of two that counterfeit bathrobes, like her purple one from Temu, were notorious for causing burns.

“The first few days I was very hysterical and they told me it happened quite often,” she said.

It is very common in this type of [fake] to set brands on fire.’

To complicate matters further, Daniella tested positive for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), an infection caused by a certain type of staph bacteria.

“If she goes to the hospital, she has to be put in a separate room. An eight-year-old child cannot tolerate that well,” Jacobs said.

“She’s autistic and has ADHD, so in the beginning she was tearing off cannulas, catheters and feeding tubes.”

The mother of two said Daniella’s recovery has been confronting at times.

“There have been times where she’s pulled off whole chunks of skin,” she said.

“She’ll sit there and hold my hand so she doesn’t scratch, but then she scratches and you get fistfuls of flesh and blood. It’s been very, very overwhelming.

“She was given painkillers, so she can’t remember anything. But it’s very overwhelming to have chunks of meat in your hand at one in the morning.”

The family is staying at the Ronald McDonald House, but is still paying rent and bills on their home in Hervey Bay, where they have not yet returned.

The cost of Daniella’s medications, food and new detergents that don’t irritate her “baby skin” means the family struggles to make ends meet.

Mrs Jacobs receives an NDIS benefit and requires a walker or wheelchair to get around. This means that getting Daniella to her outpatient appointments can be difficult.

The family started with a GoFundMe to ease the financial pressure while Daniella awaits more skin grafts and plastic surgery in the future.

Mrs Jacobs, her partner and their eldest daughter Ebony, 12, have all been diagnosed with acute stress disorder and are receiving therapy following the incident.

Temu promised Daily Mail Australia they would conduct a thorough investigation into the incident and said they hoped to hear from the family so they could offer support.

“We are deeply saddened by the news of Daniella’s accident and offer our sincere condolences to her and her family during this difficult time,” a spokesperson said.

“We want to assure them that we are taking this matter very seriously. Even though we have not yet received the purchase order details, we have already started an internal investigation.

Our teams are currently reviewing product listings and seller data related to the type of product involved in the incident.

‘We aim for a thorough investigation and will take appropriate action.’