In this day and age, it’s almost impossible to live without cellphones. They’ve become as important to us as eating and breathing, and it’s no wonder that even the littles ones in today’s generation have cellphones.
Illinoisan mother Jackie Fedro recently bought her 13-year-old daughter Gabbie a cellphone so that they could keep in touch. “One of the reasons we finally gave in and bought her a cell phone is so we can keep in touch with her more with her crazy practice schedule."
What she didn’t expect was that a week later, the phone that she had bought would injure her daughter.
READ: Never leave your phone charging overnight, it might kill you!
“She came running downstairs after it [happened] grabbing her neck,” Jackie said. “It’s the worst feeling in the world as a mother to watch your child scream in pain and have no idea how to help her.”
It took Gabbie a good five minutes before she was able to explain to her mum what had happened, and what had happened was this: Her metal necklace caught current from her phone that was charging.
“She suffered painful second-degree burns and now will have a scar all the way around her neck,” Jackie said.
Using her daughter as an example, Jackie hopes to raise awareness for such incidents.
“With so many kids using phones now days,” she said, “parents need to be warned about the harm that they can cause.”
Knockoff batteries
Although such cases are rare, it is not impossible, with more and more people finding out about it the hard way.
Scott Wolfson of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said that majority of these injuries stem from the lithium-ion batteries inside cellphones, which can explode and burn.
“We have been long concerned about it because when the incidents do happen they can be serious,” he said in a report.
He also said that the biggest risk factor for such incidents is purchasing a knock-off charger or battery from a third-party vendor. “You really shouldn’t go to a mall kiosk for a replacement battery or charger.”
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