Miami Woman Dies After Exploding Pressure Cooker Severs Leg

A Miami woman died after a pressure cooker blew up and severed her leg, according to media reports. (Getty Images)

A Miami woman died after a pressure cooker blew up and severed her leg, according to media reports.

The 79-year-old woman, Mirta Debesa, had been cooking red beans in the cooker last month when the device exploded, with parts flying all over the kitchen. A piece of the pressure cooker ended up tearing off her left leg near her ankle.

“It was like a bomb," Martin Debesa told WPLG in Miami. "My mother was lying there; her left foot was severed, cut more or less to the ankle. There was blood rushing in. I got panicky for a little while, but I recovered myself."

According to the station, Martin Debesa used a belt as a tourniquet to save his mother’s life. She was taken to a hospital, where she was eventually released to a nursing home on May 25th.

Debesa died at the nursing home last week, almost a month after the accident. A funeral for Debesa was held on Monday. Autopsy reports are still pending.