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Strictly’s AJ Pritchard’s traumatized girlfriend pleaded with him, “Do you still love me?” after being horribly burned in a fireball accident.
Dancer Abbie Quinnen, 23, has emotionally recounted how she feared she was dying as they desperately struggled to put out the flames.
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She first spoke about her ordeal during a social media stunt that went terribly wrong, leaving her with third-degree burns and a need for traumatic skin grafts.
Abbie, desperately fighting back tears, said: “AJ and I just wanted to make the stunt video for fans to see at home. It was a popular video online, so we were doing a test in the kitchen that I was going to film.
“My hair caught fire and within seconds the flames had spread to my upper body and my body was on fire.
“It was a huge shock, I was panicking and screaming. I dropped to the ground and was rolling to try to put out the fire.
“I saw my life pass before my eyes. I never thought something like this would happen to me.
“The first thing I said to AJ was, ‘Is my face going to be okay? Are you still going to love me?
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“I kept repeating this to him and he was shaking in horror.”
The stress of the incident left her unable to sleep and eat and had to take 27 tablets a day to deal with the pain.
It happened in January at AJ’s west London apartment, 26, when they rehearsed the life hack video for their 1 million Instagram followers, showing how to cut a glass bottle in half to use as a vase.
The risky trick is to dip a rope in a flammable chemical, wrap it around the bottle, and set it on fire.
The pair’s attempt sparked a fireball that engulfed Abbie.
The bottle exploded and her hair and clothing caught fire.
Abbie said: “As soon as AJ lit the rope flame, the fire was suddenly everywhere.
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“I threw myself on the ground and AJ was running with wet towels to cover me.
“When he came out I looked at the ground and it was covered in my burned hair.
“We had to cut the blouse she was wearing with a pair of scissors, my skin was blistered and it was digging into me.”
Abbie, who is also an influencer, had injuries to her face, shoulders, neck, chest, and torso.
She suffered second-degree burns to her face and third-degree burns to her body, which would force her to have three skin grafts.
AJ dialed 999 and was told the ambulance would take too long, so his brother Curtis, 25, and also a dancer, took them to Ealing Hospital in West London.
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Abbie said: “AJ was comforting me, I couldn’t speak because I was in shock. I was shaking and kept asking him if he would still love me. She was wearing a robe and leggings.
“My face was burning, it hurt a lot. I was lucky that I lost my eye.
“I had massive water-filled blisters on my chest, neck and face and they had to burst them and clean the areas.
“It was extremely painful. The doctor made me feel at ease.
“I was constantly in contact with AJ, who was out of the hospital all night with Curtis. They wouldn’t let him in because of the coronavirus. ”Abbie, who spent the night in intensive care while AJ kept her mother Mandy informed, went on to say,“ I was worried about the people next to me too.
“I could hear someone cry, I kept asking the doctors if they were going to be okay. It was frightening.”
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She was transferred to the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital burn unit the next day.
Abbie explained: “My face puffed up. I couldn’t see with my right eye.
“Fortunately, there were no mirrors in the bathrooms, but I kept catching a glimpse of my reflection on my phone screen, it was horrible. I realized that he seemed like a completely different person. From the moment it happened, I worried that I would never look the same again.
“I looked so horrible and terrible that I was terrified to see someone.
“AJ tried to come to the hospital to give me a bag of clothes, but I insisted that I didn’t want him to see me like this. I was embarrassed by the way he looked at me.
“I felt safe in the hospital where they could help me if I was in pain. I was taking so many medications that I don’t remember many. “
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After five days, Abbie was discharged in a wheelchair and AJ picked her up.
She said: “I was so nervous seeing him, when we got together we were both gushing. But once we met, I felt better.
“I remember trying to get home and I was on a mission to hide, I was so traumatized by the way I looked. AJ was relieved that he was speaking. “
Devout AJ helped clean Abbie’s wounds every two hours and returned to the hospital to have her bandages changed.
The horror incident has “brought the couple closer together.”
She said: “It constantly reassures me and tells me that we are together forever; welcomed me home with balloons. I can’t thank you enough. It has been incredible. It helps me to hydrate myself every day, washes my silicone pads, which are used to reduce scars. I am very grateful.”
Abbie was told that she would need a skin graft to give her scars the best chance of healing.
She said: “I had an amazing surgeon tell me that I had to decide where to get my donor skin from, the back of the head or the other side of the rib cage.
‘I would cry at night’
“I couldn’t bear to shave my head and lose more hair, so we went for my rib cage.”
But when the surgeon operated to perform the grafts, they discovered that Abbie had an infection, so they were forced to use allografts (donor skin) instead of theirs.
This put Abbie in emotional turmoil. She said: “I would cry the night before each operation.
“Every time I had an operation that did not work on my own skin, I would wake up shaking, I was so worried that I would not heal.
“I remember thinking, ‘Haven’t I been through enough? Why is this happening to me? ‘ But I tried to stay positive. “
Happily, Abbie’s third graft was made with rib cage skin in seven patches, including the arm, torso, and neck.
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AJ became Abbie’s full-time caregiver, and her mother took over when he was at work.
She said, “I’ve been bedridden. At first it was hard for me to eat. I lost so much weight that I went down to seven stones.
“The doctors had to be careful with the dose of the drugs because I was very young.
“But AJ makes sure I eat the right amount of healthy foods to help me recover, like lots of protein and vegetables.”
At first, Abbie was taking up to 27 tablets a day, which left her sleepy and distressed.
Abbie, who now only takes acetaminophen, is too scared to go out for fear of what people might think.
Her trauma has left her anxious and she cannot sleep without leaving the television on.
Abbie’s Instagram account has dozens of photos of her in skimpy outfits and bikinis on the beach.
But she knows that in the future she will have to be much more covered since she has to protect herself from the sun.
She has been awash with support since the crash was reported last weekend, including one involving TV host Claudia Winkleman, 49, whose daughter Matilda’s Halloween costume caught fire in 2014.
How did the docs treat it?
By Mo Akhavani
FOR skin grafts, the skin is first evaluated to see how deep the burn is.
Then a surgeon shaves off the burn in a process called debridement – the removal of dead or infected tissue.
A skin graft can reduce healing time and scarring.
A thin, paper-like layer of healthy skin is taken from another area, which is regenerated.
Surgeons apply this skin, securing it with sutures or staples, to the affected area. In five days it is known if the graft has been successful.
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Abbie said: “I was so happy that Claudia got in touch, it was terrible what happened to her daughter.
“I’ve been communicating on social media and reading about people’s travels gives me hope.”
Now Abbie wants to warn young people about the dangers of social media videos. She said: “I want to raise awareness about how dangerous this video is. I think helping others will help me heal. “
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