A SCHOOLGIRL was left in a coma with horror burns after a squishy toy she microwaved EXPLODED in her face – after she ‘copied a TikTok video’ she’d seen.
Scarlett Selby put a NeeDoh cube into the freezer and then microwaved it for a few seconds to make it more malleable after allegedly seeing a video of people trying it on the social media platform.
But harmless playtime soon turned to a living nightmare when it exploded – showering the seven-year-old’s face and chest with red-hot goo from inside the cube.
Horrified dad Josh Selby, 44, raced over to her when he heard a ‘blood-curdling scream’ and desperately tried to claw the sticky substance off her skin and clothes.
The machine operator rushed Scarlett to hospital where doctors placed her in an induced coma over fears the burns on her mouth would cause her airways to swell up and close.
Five months on from the ordeal on October 1st, Scarlett faces an anxious wait to see if she’ll need skin grafts on the second and third-degree burns she sustained.
Scarlett’s mum Amanda Blakenship said her daughter had seen clips of people microwaving the toy on other people’s TikTok and YouTube accounts and wanted to try it out for herself.
Now, the couple are urging anyone with these toys to throw them out to prevent the same thing happening to anyone else.
Toy company Schylling Toys, who manufacture NeeDoh toys, have a warning on their website that reads ‘Do NOT heat, freeze, or microwave, may cause personal injury’.
TikTok said they don’t allow content that shows or promotes dangerous behaviour, while YouTube said the safety of users is an ‘utmost priority’.
Josh, from Festus, Missouri, US, said: “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.
“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.
“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.
“My first thought was to try and wipe it off her. Whenever I touched her, my hand stuck to her. It was really thick and sticky.
“I ripped her shirt off of her because it was stuck to her shirt as well. 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.”
Hairdresser Amanda said the girl was ‘still screaming in pain’ after the 30-minute drive to St Louis Children’s Hospital, in St Louis, Missouri, and was placed into an induced coma.
Hairdresser Amanda Blakenship, 35, said: “She was in so much pain.
“She was still screaming when we got to the hospital and it’s a good 30-minute drive from where we live. It was terrible how scared she was and how much that hurt her.
“I was panicked, devastated, terrified and heartbroken.
“It was [something] she followed that she’d seen on TikTok and YouTube.”
Scarlett was placed on a feeding tube for the duration of her week-long stay in hospital due to her lips being so badly burned.
Doctors decided against performing a skin graft on Scarlett while she was in hospital, but Amanda worries she may need one in the future as she’s been left with such ‘profound’ scars.
Amanda said: “She ended up not getting the skin graft.
“After consulting with the doctors we’re going to give her a couple of years, maybe until she’s around 12, to see how her body grows and depending on if the scar stretches out and grows with her.
“The scarring is just so bad. We’re still putting creams and silicon ointments on it daily – they’re such profound scars that stick up off of her skin.
“She does get upset about it sometimes. I’ll catch her looking in the mirror after the bath and she’ll just cry.
“She gets very self conscious and I’ll see her trying to cover her scar up with her shirt when we’re out in public sometimes, or she’ll come home from school and say another kid asked her about it.
“I tell her she doesn’t need to be embarrassed about it. She went through a lot and it was a terrible, terrible accident.
“She came out of it and she’s so strong. She’s still beautiful and those scars make her who she is.”
Horrified Josh said he is now urging anyone who has the toy to throw them out to avoid the same thing happening to them.
Josh said: “I would have never thought of something exploding outside of the microwave like that.
“For that to happen to my daughter was the hardest thing that I’ve gone through. I’ve told absolutely everyone to throw them out if they have them.
“The product that’s in it is like glue so you essentially have hot glue exploding on you. Once it touches you, there’s no way to get it off.
“It should not be sold like it is and it definitely should not be marketed the way it is. If something can explode like that, it definitely shouldn’t be frozen.”
Schylling Toys have been approached for comment and failed to respond.
TikTok said they don’t allow content that shows or promotes dangerous behaviour.
They also said they have created technology that alerts their safety teams to sudden increases in violative content linked to hashtags to help detect potentially harmful trends.
YouTube said it is a 13+ platform and accounts found belonging to people under 13 without parental supervision can either set up a supervised account or will be terminated.
They said they have strict rules prohibiting content that features minors engaging in dangerous activities, including content related to challenges that pose an imminent risk of physical injury.
They said the safety of users is an ‘utmost priority’ and they ‘vigorously remove this type of content’.
How to treat burns
Your skin has three layer; the outer layer (epidermis), the dermis (which contains vessels, nerves, hair follicles) and the deeper layer of fat (subcutis).
A full thickness burn is when all layers of skin are damaged, while a superficial burn is when only the top layer has been effected.
The NHS says to treat a burn:
- Immediately get the person away from the heat source
- Remove any clothing or jewellery, including babies’ nappies, but do not move anything that’s stuck to the skin
- Cool the burn with cool or lukewarm running water for 20 to 30 minutes – do not use ice, iced water, or any creams or greasy substances like butter
- Make sure the person keeps warm by using a blanket, for example
- After cooling the burn, cover the burn by placing a layer of cling film over it – a clean plastic bag could also be used for burns on your hand
- Use painkillers such as paracetamol or ibuprofen
- Raise the affected area if possible to reduce swelling
- If it’s an acid or chemical burn, dial 999, carefully try to remove the chemical and any contaminated clothing, and rinse the affected area using as much clean water as possible
You should go to a hospital A&E department for:
- All chemical and electrical burns
- Large or deep burns – any burn bigger than the injured person’s hand
- Burns that cause white or charred skin – any size
- Burns on the face, neck, hands, feet, any joints or genitals
