13-Year-Old Wakes Up With Burn Marks Around Her Neck
What seemed to be a happy day for one thirteen-year-old Gabbie quickly turned horrific when things suddenly took a different turn and left her in excruciating pain. She had not seen it coming, and quite frankly, no one would have. Sadly, much as she would like to forget it, she bears scars that will forever remind her of that fateful day.
Authorities and other concerned parties have since shared the story on social media platforms to warn everybody else to prevent the same from happening to someone else.
Gabby had been very excited. She had just received her brand-new LG D500 android phone. The teenager couldn’t wait to call her friends and tell them about it. She left her mum downstairs and happily bounced off to her room where she immediately plugged it to charge.
It is advisable to let the phone charge before using it, but for one so excited, Gabbie was just impatient. She could not wait to turn it on and reach out to the rest of her peers after missing in action for so long. Who wouldn’t be.
A few minutes later, Gabby picked up her phone to talk to a friend. It was still connected to the charger, and she did not see a problem with it. People do it all the time. Immediately, she felt a shocking and excruciating sensation around her neck. The skin under her metallic necklace was burning up. Literally.
The poor girl screamed in pain and threw the phone away. She ran downstairs to her mom hoping that she would make it go away, and the poor woman did not even know where to start. Jackie examined her sobbing daughter carefully and realized that she had sustained some second-degree burns around her neck.
A few minutes later when the pain began subsiding, Gabbie was explained what had happened. Even then, it made little sense.
As it turned out, the phone charger had conducted current to Gabbie’s necklace which had not only electrocuted her but also burned her. The pain had been unbearable. Gabbie was later rushed to the hospital where she was given medication to help with the pain as well as protect her wounds from infection.
When the store manager who ran the shop where the phone had been bought was informed, he apologized profoundly and offered to replace the phone (it was new when the accident occurred) as well as cover any medical costs for Gabbie’s treatment. While that is a good gesture, things could have been a lot worse for the teenager.
People have been suffering injuries from their electronic gadgets for a very long time, and others have even died from the effects.
Phones, in particular, are hazardous when not handled well. Faulty parts such as the battery cause most of these problems. We are advised to ensure that we buy quality spare parts, preferably from the manufacturer. Defective batteries could easily overheat and leak current, or even worse, explode.
To ensure safety, we should avoid using the phone as it charges. You should wait for it to charge fully, unplug it then use it. If poor Gabbie had been patient enough, she would not have those scars on her neck.
