Dad Punished Child, 2, With Boiling Hot Shower

A two-year-old girl is in an artificial coma and fighting for her life after her father threw her into a scalding hot shower leaving her with severe burns at the family home in the Austrian capital Vienna.

Christian Eisenhauer told police he did not realise the shower was scalding hot when he threw the child inside and switched it on, and had not even realised she had been burned until the blisters started appearing.

It meant that she was only taken to hospital hours later when doctors realised her organs had already started to fail, and she was put into an artificial coma in the intensive care ward.

The father was questioned and released on police bail on the condition he did not return to the family home or have any contact with his wife and two other children while the investigation is continuing.

Social workers meanwhile say they are leaving the two young boys with the mother after an examination showed that neither appeared to have any signs of abuse.

Social worker Herta Staffa said: “They are not seen to be at risk in her care. We will remain in contact with the mother to see whether she could imagine living with her partner again and to put in place a support network if he does return to the family.”

The family was once previously investigated by the youth welfare office but according to Staffa, everything was found to be as it should be.