The drama unfolded on Saturday night when Kyla sat on her special chair to use her potty. But when Teresa left the room to empty the potty Kyla put the seat, which has a hole in the middle, on her head. Teresa, aged 37, said: "As she came up the stairs she was screaming 'Mummy I'm stuck'. I didn't know what else to do apart from smother it in washing up liquid. That's how I'd usually get rings off if they were stuck on my finger so it was all I could think of."
Teresa called NHS Direct for advice. She was told to go to a fire station, a walk-in centre, or call 999. She added: "I felt ridiculous calling 999 as she wasn't choking, there was plenty of room around her neck. Kyla was frightened that I couldn't get it off. She started trying to hold it down so I couldn't mess with it. I didn't want to yank it myself but I didn't want to shove her into a taxi to get to a fire station so I called 999 and within five minutes a crew was here. It was quite a sight."
The Hanley firefighters initially tried to wiggle the seat to get it off Kyla's head. But they then turned to so-called 'tin snips' to cut the seat. Firefighter Guy Volpe said: "Luckily the plastic seat was nice and soft so we managed to snip it off and had the incident sorted within five minutes. It's not unusual for toddlers to get themselves trapped in things, but seeing the potty around Kyla's neck was a first for most of us and an horrific sight for the mother. It highlights that mothers need to be vigilant when babies are using chairs and potties because with toddlers accidents can all too often happen."
