Woman shares urgent warning after suffering second-degree burns on hands after making a COCKTAIL

A New York City woman was left with both hands covered in 'second-degree burns' after making margaritas and lounging by the pool, with her blisters ballooning to the size of 'golf balls.' 

Haley Peacock, a Brooklyn designer, suffered painful and severe burns last month while celebrating her boyfriend's birthday with a group of friends at an upstate home, according to a now-viral TikTok video documenting the ordeal. 

But there was no flame or hot surface involved – the culprit was seemingly the simple act of making a margarita. 

Just one day earlier, Peacock had hand-squeezed about 30 limes to make a large batch of margaritas for the group before spending hours soaking up the sun by the pool. 

'Now both of my hands are covered in second-degree burns,' Peacock said, holding up one hand wrapped in a medical bandage.

'And I have my grandpa's funeral tomorrow, so I'm gonna be pulling up like this,' she added.

Peacock is now warning others about the dangers of 'margarita burn' – medically known as phytophotodermatitis – an agonizing reaction that occurs when citrus compounds, such as lime juice, interact with UV light. 

'Please please please, do not squeeze citrus and then go lay in the sun,' she said. 'And if you do, please wash your hands with soap like 17 times.' 

Photos documenting the progression show the redness around her fingers rapidly giving way to massive blisters that engulfed both hands, with some eventually swelling to the size of ping-pong balls. 

'I commonly see phytophotodermatitis when somebody has been barbecuing on a sunny afternoon and having drinks with limes in them, like margaritas or beers with a lime squeezed in,' Dermatologist Melissa Piliang told the Cleveland Clinic.

'Anything where they're cutting and squeezing limes and splashing the juice on themselves and then enjoying the sunshine,' she added. 

In Peacock's video, which has now racked up more than 1.5 million views, she showed off her heavily bandaged hands and revealed that she had no idea making cocktails could leave her with second-degree burns. 

Just last week, she shared another video detailing the ordeal.

The group decided to kick off the party with a batch of margaritas, which Peacock offered to make. 

She said she went back inside and quickly realized there was no juicer – or even a basic citrus squeezer. 

With no other option, she used her bare hands to squeeze enough limes to make margaritas for about 25 people. 

'After I was finished squeezing all the limes, I ran my hands under the sink,' Peacock explained in her update video, saying she simply rinsed them off without using soap.

'I didn't think much of it - my hands didn't feel sticky or anything, and I knew we were just going to be by the pool and in the pool all day, so it didn't really cross my mind,' she added.

The rest of the day appeared completely normal, she said. After getting out of the pool and taking a shower, her hands were still fine – no redness, swelling or itching, nothing to suggest a burn was coming. 

Even the rest of Peacock's body escaped sunburn, she said, explaining that she is 'cautious' about sunscreen because of her fair skin. 

'It wasn't until the next morning, when I woke up, and I looked at my hands and they felt weird, they felt swollen, and they were kinda sort-of red that I was like... something's weird,' she said.

She snapped a photo of her hand at breakfast, revealing faint red rings forming around each of her fingers. 

Peacock said the drive home became increasingly unsettling as the condition of her hands grew 'worse and worse' with each passing hour. 

Fearing she had an infection, Peacock spent the night frantically Googling her symptoms, desperate to understand what was happening to her hands. 

Finally, a search for 'delayed sunburn' brought up results about citrus and sun exposure, leading to a revelation that she said immediately made everything click. 

By the next morning, Peacock’s hands had erupted in rapidly growing blisters, sending her straight to urgent care. 

Yet even as she waited to be seen, the reaction continued to spread, with large, fluid-filled bubbles swelling across her thumb and between her fingers. 

The doctor confessed she had never heard of the condition, but confirmed that Peacock had indeed suffered second-degree burns. She prescribed a cream and pills to help treat the reaction. 

She believed the burns had finally peaked, but she soon learned that the worst was yet to come. 

Peacock stopped showing photos of her hands at this point, saying the damage had become too gruesome to share. Hidden beneath thick layers of medical wrap and gauze, she said, is a terrifying sight. 

She described her hand as looking as though it had been infected with 'poison gas,' saying: 'My whole hand is discolored. There are blisters the size of golf balls - one on my thumb and one by my ring finger.'

'My left hand is a little less severe but it's still... honestly disgusting what's happening underneath these bandages,' she said, showing her hand wrapped in a pink cheetah-print protective covering.

'It's not pretty, I honestly have pretty limited use in my hands so my boyfriend basically has to do everything for me - he's an angel.'

New York dermatologist Samer Jaber told CBS News that lime juice can trigger a 'red, itchy, blistering rash' anywhere it touches the skin.

The reaction, he explained, can appear as an irregular shape or streak-like mark tracing where the juice dripped. 

Limes aren’t the only culprit. Foods such as fennel, figs, celery and carrots can also trigger phytophotodermatitis, though Cleveland Clinic says the reaction is more common in the summer and is particularly associated with limes.