A 12-year-old UK boy had to undergo surgery after a squishy toy left on a windowsill exploded, showering him with molten goo.
“He was in the kitchen and suddenly started screaming,” Aarti Narula, 44, told Kennedy News of the horrific incident, which occurred at her home in Meyerside.
This was one of a rash of NeeDoh-related accidents that have befallen children over the past couple of months.
Aarti’s son Avyaan had reportedly been playing with a cube of NeeDoh, which she purchased from Lidl, on July 17 during the brutal heatwave that scorched the UK.
His play session was cut short when the gelatinous knick-knack burst, expelling its scalding contents onto the top of his left foot.
Upon hearing his cries, the preteen’s distraught mom rushed into the kitchen and tried to scrape off the sticky substance before washing it off under a cold tap.
“In a panic, I washed his foot because there was no way that the fluid would come off — it just got stuck like a blob, it was very thick,” the mother-of-two recalled.
However, by that point the damage had been done, and an hour later, the skin atop his foot had started to bubble.
“Two or three hours later it had completely ballooned,” recalled the aghast parent, adding that her progeny “began to lose feeling in the limb” as well.
Horrified, Aarti rushed the boy to the hospital in Liverpool, where doctors diagnosed him with full dermal burns, which would require him to get the dermis replaced.
“The doctors said he would definitely need a skin graft because there was no blood supply [to the skin in that area of his foot],” Aarti.
On July 20, Avyaan underwent the operation, which required doctors to use a swatch of healthy skin from his thigh to replace his damaged dermis.
His mother believes the NeeDoh had burst because it had been left in direct sunlight on the windowsill of her son’s bedroom.
The toy’s manufacturer, Schylling Toys, has a disclaimer on their website to “NOT heat, freeze, or microwave” the cubes as this “may cause personal injury.”
Meanwhile, some retail websites warn users not to leave the toy in direct sunlight.
Meanwhile, a rep for the toy company said that “use of a NeeDoh product in a manner inconsistent with its instructions and warnings may pose a safety risk.”
“We have also reinforced safety warnings on NeeDoh product packaging and across our e-commerce listings,” they said. “We encourage parents and caregivers to supervise children during play and to review all product instructions and warnings before use.”
However, Aarti said that she believes such a mishap “could happen again” as they’re “being sold everywhere.”
“If it’s the case that the fluid inside, or the outside of the cube, doesn’t tolerate the heat and it can burst or pop, then that’s definitely dangerous,” warned the guardian, who is urging others to discard their NeeDoh cubes.
“Everyone who’s got these cubes should just bin them,” she cautioned. “Definitely make sure that your children don’t go anywhere near this.”
Unfortunately, Avyaan’s not the first to be scalded by one of these superheated jelly bags of late.
Earlier this summer, a West Virginia teen had to be hospitalized after getting scalded by a squishy toy that had been mistakenly left in a hot car.
The girl’s mother shared photos of the victim, whose thighs were visibly burned and covered in the viscous substance as if rubbed with Vaseline.
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