“I can still hear the sound of her screaming echoing in my ears.”
So says actor Christian Bennett, recalling the day his two-year-old daughter Phoenix-Isabella Bennett was burnt with hot water in a freak accident at their Plumstead home.
Phoenix is a little star in her own right. She was only two weeks old when she landed the role of Baby Stella in the popular kykNet soapie, Suidooster.
She has since left the soapie.
Christian says the hot water incident happened on 31 January, and Phoenix suffered second-degree burns.
“I can’t go into finer details, but Phoenix was burnt and my fiancee and I were home at the time of the incident,” he says.
BOND: Christian, Phoenix. Photo: SUPPLIED
“My fiancee is still very sad about what happened and doesn’t want to talk about it.”
Christian says they wrapped Phoenix in a towel and he rushed with her to Tokai Melomed “in less than 5 minutes”.
“The building has a lift, but I took the stairs. The rest of the residents heard her screaming, but I sped to get her to safety,” the dad says.
The little girl spent seven days in ICU.
“Phoenix lives up to her name, the Fire-Bird rising from the ashes,” says Christian.
“After a few days in ICU, doctors said the skin transplant isn’t needed anymore.
“She healed so fast in a week that they didn’t have to operate.”
Phoenix was discharged last week and is recovering well.
Wilmer Muller from Suidooster says Phoenix left the show as Baby Stella needed to be replaced with an older child because of the storyline.
“The first scenes with the new baby Stella were already recorded in October 2018.”
Mishka Ross, 3, has replaced Phoenix as Baby Stella.