A baby boy left alone at a nursery suffered severe burns after coming into contact with superglue.

Little Torben Manners was left with serious injuries on his neck, back, shoulder, chest, leg and arm.

A rare reaction between the glue and his clothes caused a chemical burn – with panicked staff pouring Coca-Cola on his injuries.

His mum, Jodie, from Brighton, is desperate to get the 19-month-old home after the incident near where the family is staying in Brazil.

They had planned to stay for six months but now want to return to the UK for Torben to have surgery.

Jodie, 32, said: “Nothing could have prepared us for what we saw when we arrived at A&E.

“When we got there, we were taken to this room where Torben was wrapped in a sheet.

“We couldn’t see any of his body, we just saw glue all over his face and all around his eyes.

“It had hardened around his teeth, all underneath his tongue and round the bottom of his mouth; it was just a large mass of glue.

“He couldn’t speak and was just crying. He couldn’t really say anything.”

The toddler had reportedly been left unsupervised by staff with a type of glue that causes a heat reaction when it comes into contact with cotton – and can sometimes even make the fabric overheat.

Jodie said: “I found out later that someone at the first hospital, possibly another patient, told staff that they should use Coca-Cola to get the glue to separate.

“And they actually did it! The staff just took someone’s advice, just someone who was there, they took their advice to use Coca-Cola to try to get it off.”

Eventually Torben’s skin stopped burning, but the areas of severe burns need grafts in order to repair, as the skin will not heal on its own.

Jodie said: “I didn’t know that severe burns meant grafts. I didn’t know that grafts meant possible long-term disability. I didn’t know any of those things.”

Torben is now waiting on the results of his first skin graft, before Jodie hopes to be able to take him back to the UK for treatment at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children.

So far the mum has raised nearly £5,000 of her £8,500 target, with strangers from around the world donating to help them return home.

Jodie said: “They left him with this glue, which they shouldn’t have had. They took him to the hospital without getting our permission. They didn’t call us straight away.

“He was on his own, without us, just with the nursery staff in the hospital for over an hour. I don’t know if he felt alone.

“He was taken to this other hospital and they were removing his clothes and damaging his skin, without us there.

“Just going through all of that and being alone – that makes it so much worse.”