Freak accident with cellphone leaves teen with second-degree burns on neck

An Illinois mom is speaking out to warn parents after her daughter got second-degree burns on her neck while using her charging cellphone.

Fox LA reported that Jackie Fedro’s daughter Gabbie, 13, was using her new LG d500 as it was plugged into a wall charger when an electric current traveled from the wall, through her phone and to her metal necklace— leaving her severely burned. BuzzFeed reported that Gabbie’s necklace was from the accessories store Claire’s.

“She came running downstairs after it [happened] grabbing her neck,” Jackie Fedro told BuzzFeed News. “She was in so much pain, she was screaming hysterically.”

Jackie told the website she felt helpless in the situation and that is was “the worst feeling in the world as a mother to watch your child scream in pain.”

Scott Wolfson, of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, told BuzzFeed most of these incidents occur when lithium-ion batteries in a phone overheat, and that knock-off or third-party vendors’ chargers and batteries can increase the risk of these injuries, which are relatively rare.

“This is a really serious incident,” Wolfson told BuzzFeed of Gabbie’s photos. “Those are really terrible burn marks.”

Jackie said Gabbie was using all original, new equipment from T-Mobile when she suffered the neck burns. BuzzFeed reported that, after the incident, she sent the phone to T-Mobile to test it, and the company has sent her a new phone and offered to pay her medical bills.