Two Droplets Blog Warns of Drain Cleaner Dangers-Investigation Pending!

Two Droplets Blog Warns of Drain Cleaner Dangers-Investigation Pending!

Summary of eRumor:
A blog post titled “Two Droplets” tells the story of a Milwaukee man who suffered a chemical burn on the back of his hand from drain cleaner that has lead to a five-year medical nightmare.
The Truth:
We don’t have any clear answers on this one.
We can’t independently confirm whether or not the claims made in the Two Droplets blog post are true, but our investigation is ongoing.
In the blog, the unnamed author tells the horrific story of her husband’s encounter with “two droplets” of drain cleaner in June 2010. After a bathroom sink became clogged, her husband poured drain cleaner directly into a pipe beneath the sink through a funnel. Then, the “funnel burped and two droplets of the chemical hit the back of his hand” and began to eat away at the skin on his hand:

The chemical began to eat away at the skin. We lived 5 minutes from a local hospital, so I snapped a photo of the ingredients on the bottle and we headed off to the emergency room. The hospital called poison control and proceeded to follow protocol in treating the chemical burn. He ended up having a skin graft performed to cover the wound area, which was not much larger than a quarter. Done, right? End of story? Not even close. It was only the beginning.

After a few uneventful months, the grafted area began to ache. It was an ache that he would become all too familiar with moving forward. The ache was followed by redness in the area, which quickly evolved into necrotic (dead) skin and flesh. The wound spread beyond the grafted area and became a bit larger. He was admitted to the hospital and another graft surgery was performed. It didn’t fix the problem. Neither did the next one, or the next one, or the next one.

Over the next five years, the woman wrote, the back of her husband’s hand constantly ached and the skin repeatedly died. The affected area spread until it covered the entire surface of his hand, and doctors have not been able to find a diagnosis, the author continued.
A number of doctors who have read the blog have offered possible diagnosis and treatment options in the comment section, including pyoderma gangrenosum and white clot syndrome, which could be a side effect of medication he’s receiving.
It’s interesting to note that these conditions would not be caused by the two droplets of drain cleaner that hit the back of the man’s hand. They would be caused by the skin grafts, other health conditions or medications that resulted from his chemical burn.
Here’s what we know for sure: drain cleaners can cause severe chemical burns when they come into contact with skin. And drain cleaners become especially dangerous when they’re mixed with other chemicals. These dangerous mixtures can explode from drains and onto skin, as described in the Two Droplets blog post.
That’s exactly what happened to a grandmother who owns a bed and breakfast in England in July 2010. She poured “two droplets” — an really odd coincidence — of Extreme Green’s Dr. Drain into a sink. After a few seconds there was a gurgling sound and then chemicals suddenly exploded from the drain, causing severe burns on her face, the Daily Mail reports:

Doctors at Southampton General Hospital told her that it was only because of her quick-thinking to keep her eyes closed that her sight was saved.

Mrs Insch, a grandmother of ten, from Netley Abbey, Hampshire, said: ‘I read the instructions and put two drops in, we hadn’t used any other product that day, only the plunger.

‘It started to bubble so I turned round to see what was happening and it exploded, it hit the ceiling and went straight into my face.

Shocked: Sheila Insch pictured grandaughter Ceri Roper

‘I just grabbed something to wipe my face and I kept my eyes closed as my eyes are very valuable to me.

‘I kept washing my face all the way to hospital. It was terribly painful, burning, it hurt.

‘The doctor said my quick actions saved my face but he said I can’t go out in the sun for a year.’

Mrs Insch, who runs Telemark House B&B, was rushed to hospital by her daughter Gwen, but was transferred to the specialist burns unit at Salisbury Odstock Hospital, where she stayed for three days.

That story is eerily similar to the one told in the Two Droplets blog. The two events even happened within a month of each other.
A chemist for Extreme Green’s Dr. Drain said the company was assisting in the investigation, but he said the product is safe when used properly:

He added: ‘It clearly states that this product will react violently if it is in contact with other products and I would suspect there was something else down her drain for it to react in such a way.

‘Incidents like this are very rare.’

Out investigation into the Two Drops blog is ongoing. Check back for future updates.