You’re there in your bathroom. You want to tackle that cold sore. You pick up the cream and apply it gingerly to your lips. Suddenly you can’t even open your mouth!

A poor New Zealand woman accidentally put super glue onto her lips instead of cold sore treatment cream resulting in her lips being completely sealed.

"Ambulance received a call but, due to the muffled speech, they were unsure whether it was a medical event or whether someone had been gagged," said Senior Sergeant Steve Aitken after the incident.

What sounds like a horrific experience, the Sergeant explained that the woman was highly distressed because at the time she was also suffering from a heavy head cold and her breathing was impaired.

Speaking after her treatment in hospital, the 64 year old woman said that the terrifying accident happened while fumbling in for the cold sore cream at night.

"I have all my ointments in a tray in the cupboard, so I got out of bed and I dived into the tray” she said.

"And then I got into bed and thought: what have I put on my mouth? I couldn't speak on the phone, so I couldn't tell them where I lived. I couldn't tell them my phone number” she continued.

"The communication was 'Do you live in Dunedin?' and I grunted 'mmm', and then the lady went through all the suburbs and then all the streets. She was very, very patient.

I had to tap on the phone, one tap for no and two taps for yes, and then it took a long time to narrow down the streets and then all the numbers too."

Doctors at the hospital had to use paraffin oil to remove the glue.