UK Girl, 16, Suffers Severe Sunburn on Back After Snorkeling in Caribbean

Young couple snorkeling in clean water over coral reef via Shutterstock*

Warning: This article contains graphic photos and details.

A 16-year-old girl in England reportedly suffered a severe sunburn on her back while she was vacationing in Cuba.

Maisie Squires told Fox News on July 27 that she was snorkeling in Cuba near the end of her family’s stay there when she got sunburned.

Temperatures in the area reached about 96 degrees Fahrenheit. Squires said, however, that she was covered in sunscreen during the trip.

Despite this, the sun caused serious damage to her back during the snorkeling trip, which lasted about one hour.

“Time passed as I was having a lot of fun and was very interested in the sea life,“ Maisie said. ”I was not aware that my back was burning as I was in the cool water, concentrating on snorkeling.”

Hours later, she felt severe pain in her back and arms. She put lotion on the sunburn, but to no avail.

Squires said she couldn’t sleep “as I was in that much pain, I couldn’t hardly [sic] move.”

Photos posted on Facebook (Warning: graphic) showed four blisters on her back, and the cream from the hotel doctor didn’t help, she said.

According to her father, Dean, Squires’s sunburn was “much worse in real life,” saying that she wore sunscreen during the snorkeling trip.

“She was wearing sun cream on front and back,” he told The Sun newspaper. “I’ve never seen as bad before. We know teenagers don’t listen, but she was wearing cream and was still burnt.”

“Hopefully it’ll be a good warning to other people,” Dean Squires added.

When she got back to the United Kingdom, the blisters were growing by the hour.

“When walking it felt like I had water balloons on my back. I could feel the fluid in the blisters moving around,” she recalled. “The massive blisters were appearing through the back of my top causing everybody to look at me.”

The flight, for her, was miserable.

“For the whole flight I had to sit with my back arched forward with my head in front of my knees,” the teen recalled, adding that her sister accidentally ran by her and popped a blister.

“My whole back was soaking from the fluid,” she said.

Squires and her mother then went to the emergency room, where doctors said the blisters would pop on their own. They recommended that she leave them alone or risk developing an infection.

“My back burnt like this as I was not aware of the heat that was directly on my back and also I have very fair skin, meaning I burn easily,” she said.

“If I had not of [sic] put sun cream on my back, it would’ve been so much worse,” she continued. “I just hope that people see how dangerous the sun actually is and hopefully my horrific mistake has been a big lesson to most people and also me myself.”

On Facebook, she posted the photos of her back with thousands of shares and comments.

Sunburn Tip

A creative home hack from a mother of two in Mount Calm, Texas, has got people talking. Cindie Allen-Stewart, 35, claimed that this unusual remedy can cure a sunburn, and all it takes is a little help from a common bathroom commodity.

If you want to get rid of sunburn, Cindie says, then slap on some shaving cream! “I burn, then do the shaving cream, and then the next day, it’s usually gone,” Cindie shared, speaking to Inside Edition.

The mother-of-two explained that if ever she, her husband, or her children sustain a nasty sunburn, she simply reaches for a menthol-based shaving cream and lathers a thick layer directly onto the affected area. It usually makes a visible difference within several hours, Cindie assured, adding: “I rarely ever peel.”

After several successes, Cindie posted photos and a descriptive tutorial on Facebook. Summer was in full swing; the post went viral.

Epoch Times reporter Louise Bevan contributed to this article.