"Exploding toilet" could sound like a gross joke.
But it's a serious matter to one woman in Florida, who says a toilet literally blew out in an elementary school bathroom.
One minute you're minding your own business, and the next minute, a toilet explodes!
That's exactly what happened to Anne Burson of Palm Harbor, Florida.
"I went to flush, I took one step to the sink and boom!" said Anne Burson, the plaintiff in the lawsuit.
Anne was the librarian at Tarpon Springs Fundamental Elementary School.
The city was working on the school's water lines that day.
Somehow the pressure build-up led to the side of the toilet blowing out.
"You've gotta have a sense of humor about it or it's just plain sad," Burson said.
Porcelain shrapnel left a deep gash in Anne's leg and she ended up in the emergency room.
She says, "When they brought me in they said what happened to you? When I told them, everybody just started laughing."
But it soon became apparent the commode caper wasn't all laughs.
Anne's leg wasn't healing properly. Then, it became infected with a form of tuberculosis.
She said, "I went to the plastic surgeon, he looked at it and he said 'You know, this is the way people lose limbs.' Oh no."
Anne had to be on powerful antibiotics for 6 months.
Anne is suing he city of Tarpon Springs for the pain and suffering and the dark scar on her leg.
The bizarre ordeal also left her a little hesitant to reach for the handle.
"It took a long time before I felt comfortable flushing the toilet. I opened the door and flushed and ran, get myself outta there. I did that for a long time," Burson said.
The incident happened while she was preparing to retire, after working at the school for 40 years.
The city could not comment because of the pending lawsuit.
