Health
7-Year-Old Girl Left In Coma After Toy Explodes During Online Trend Gone Wrong
A schoolgirl ‘copied a TikTok video’ she had watched, and when she microwaved a soft toy, it burst in her face, leaving her in a coma with horrific wounds.
Scarlett Selby allegedly saw a video of people trying a NeeDoh cube on the social media platform, so she put it in the freezer and microwaved it for a few seconds to make it more pliable.
However, innocuous playing quickly became a nightmare as it exploded, splattering red-hot muck from inside the cube across the seven-year-old’s face and torso.
In the terrifying October 2024 incident, Scarlett’s shocked father, Josh Selby, rushed to her after hearing a “blood-curdling scream” and made a valiant attempt to scrape the sticky substance off the child’s skin and clothing.
He hurried Scarlett to the hospital, where medical professionals put her in an induced coma because they were concerned that the burns on her mouth might cause her airways to constrict and swell.
According to Scarlett’s mother, Amanda Blakenship, her daughter wanted to test the toy out after seeing videos of others microwaving it on YouTube and TikTok.
Nevertheless, ‘Do NOT heat, freeze, or microwave, may cause physical injury’ is a caution posted on the website of Schylling Toys, the firm that makes NeeDoh toys.
“She’d frozen the NeeDoh cube the night before and the next day she showed me it was rock solid and was playing with it,” said Scarlett’s father, Josh, of Festus, Missouri, in the United States, recalling the terrible experience from the previous year.
“She stuck it in the microwave. I was watching her and saw her touch it to check it wasn’t too hot when she pulled it out.”
Josh went on: “It all happened so quickly. I heard her scream and it was like a blood-curdling scream. It had exploded all over her chest, mouth and chin. I took her as quickly as I could to the hospital.”
“I was a complete mess. She spent a week in the hospital and for three days of that she was in the coma. I don’t think I could speak to anybody without crying the entire time.”
The girl was’still screaming in anguish’ after the 30-minute trip to St. Louis Children’s Hospital, according to her mother, before being put into an induced coma.
Amanda worries that Scarlett may eventually require skin grafts due to the severity of her scars.
TikTok responded to the apparent internet trend by stating that it does not permit content that depicts or encourages risky behavior.
In order to help identify potentially dangerous patterns, the business also stated that it has developed technology that notifies its safety teams of abrupt spikes in offensive content associated with hashtags.
According to YouTube, which claims to be a 13+ site, accounts belonging to minors without parental supervision may be terminated or a supervised account may be created.
Additionally, it stated that it has stringent policies that forbid content that depicts children participating in risky activities, such as challenges that present an immediate risk of bodily harm, and that user safety is their “utmost priority.” They “vigorously remove this type of content.”
Schylling has already addressed the problem in a statement to LADbible Group.
It said, “Ensuring the safety of our consumers is fundamental for Schylling. We were disappointed to see there had been a trend on social media demonstrating product misuse of our NeeDoh® brand.”
“Misusing a NeeDoh product by microwaving, heating, or freezing is dangerous and may cause injury. Schylling has partnered with social media companies, such as TikTok, to remove influential content containing NeeDoh product misuse.”
“Additionally, Schylling has added a product warning to NeeDoh packaging and our website to help combat product misuse.”
“Schylling has made the Consumer Product Safety Commission aware and will continue to cooperate with them.”
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