Restaurant Butter Spill Leaves Toddler Severely Burned; Family Outraged by Company's Response

A family outing to a Baydöner restaurant turned into a nightmare when a 2-year-old girl, Mercan, sustained severe burns from a spill of boiling butter. The incident occurred on September 14, 2025, when a waiter was serving İskender döner to a table near the kitchen.

As the waiter approached with a pan full of foaming, boiling butter, the handle suddenly detached. The hot liquid splashed onto Mercan, who was seated to her mother's right, causing deep second-degree burns on her left elbow, waist, and legs. The terrifying moments were captured on the restaurant's security cameras.

Mercan's mother, Gülçin Demirkol, recounted the agonizing ordeal, describing how her daughter had to undergo daily painful bandage changes, which she likened to being "scraped with a razor blade." The trauma has also affected Mercan's speech and mobility, and doctors have indicated that keloids have formed, potentially requiring future cosmetic surgery.

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Mercan was only 2 years old. We had to go to the hospital 3-4 times a day. Every day, at every dressing change, they scraped my daughter's burns with a razor blade. She suffered greatly. She had just started talking, and after that, her speech stopped completely. For 3-4 months, she could only lie on her stomach in bed. Her treatment is still ongoing. In some areas, keloids have formed, which are pieces of flesh in medical terms. Doctors said that a cosmetic operation, a surgical intervention, might be necessary in the future.

Demirkol criticized the restaurant chain for its lack of immediate and adequate response. She stated that a regional manager admitted the company had struggled with this specific equipment issue for 15-20 years without finding a solution. The family felt ignored, contrasting the company's response to a previous incident where a customer's jacket was damaged, and the company simply replaced it. "Is human life this cheap?" Demirkol questioned, urging the restaurant to abandon such serving "shows."

The incident has left the entire family traumatized, with Demirkol seeking psychological support. Mercan, who had just begun to speak, has stopped talking, and the long-term physical and psychological effects of the burns are still unfolding.

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We couldn't get any response from the relevant company after the incident. Only a gentleman named İbrahim Bey, the Aegean Regional Manager, called us that night. He openly told me, 'Well, we haven't been able to find a remedy or solution for this butter-spilling incident for 15-20 years.' We expected someone to apologize or check on us by the next day, but no one came or called. Previously, they spilled it on a citizen's jacket at another branch, and they resolved the issue by buying a new jacket. Is human life this cheap? Don't do this show, go spill the butter in the kitchen.