A 7-year-old Missouri girl fell into a coma after a squishy toy exploded and severely burned her while she was attempting a viral TikTok challenge.
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“It all happened so quickly,” Scarlett Selby’s dad, Josh Selby, recalled to Kennedy News via The New York Post. “I heard her scream, and it was like a blood-curdling scream.”
The little girl from Festus attempted to replicate a popular challenge she had seen on TikTok and YouTube. The trend involves freezing a NeeDoh, a squishy stress toy made of rubber and filled with polyvinyl alcohol, and then microwaving it briefly to make it softer and more flexible.
“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,” Josh explained. “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.”
What began as a seemingly fun experiment took a disastrous turn when the toy exploded, splattering Scarlett’s face and chest with scalding ooze.
Josh reportedly heard his daughter’s agonized screams and rushed to her side, desperately trying to scrape the burning, goo-like substance off her body and clothes. However, the task proved challenging due to the substance’s thick, sticky, consistency.
“Whenever I touched her, my hand stuck to her,” Josh recalled in horrific detail. He explained that he had to rip off the child’s shirt because the scalding goo was all over it, too.
Doctors Opt to Place Girl in an Induced Coma After TikTok Challenge Goes Wrong
Scarlett’s mom, Amanda Blankenship, 35, and her husband drove their severely injured daughter to St. Louis Children’s Hospital, a 30-minute journey. Despite their efforts, the pain was so intense that, according to Amanda, the child was “still screaming in pain” upon arrival.
“It was terrible how scared she was and how much that hurt her,” the mother recalled.
When Scarlett arrived at the facility, doctors placed her in an induced coma for three days, fearing that the burns on her mouth might cause her airways to swell and close. Her lips were so badly burned that she required feeding through a tube during her week-long hospital stay.
Doctors opted not to perform a skin graft on Scarlett during her hospital stay. However, her mother fears she may require one in the future, citing the severity of her scarring.
“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,” Scarlett’s mother explained. “We’re still putting creams and silicon ointments on it daily — they’re such profound scars that stick up off of her skin.”
Toy’s Website Explicitly Says Not to Freeze or Microwave Product
Meanwhile, her father Josh is urging fellow parents to dispose of their Needoh products following a devastating incident he called the most difficult experience of his life.
“I’ve told absolutely everyone to throw them out if they have them,” Josh urged. “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,” he added.
The toy’s manufacturer, Schylling Toys, has yet to issue a comment. However, their website includes a clear warning: “Do NOT heat, freeze, or microwave, as this may cause personal injury.”