10-year-old girl suffers serious burns to her face after participating in viral challenge
A 10-year-old child suffered serious burns after taking part in a viral trend that involved heating squishy toys in a microwave. The incident occurred in Gold Coast, Australia, when Violet Zerbst removed the heated toy from the device and squeezed it, causing an explosion that covered her face with the boiling contents.
The challenge circulating on social media
The trend is to place an anti-stress gel toy in the microwave to make it softer. Violet had seen other people performing the same procedure in videos on the internet and believed it to be a safe and risk-free activity.
The girl heated the squishy for 30 seconds, took it out of the device and started squeezing the toy. As he did so, the object exploded and its contents, still at a very high temperature, hit his face.
The incident and emergency care
“I could feel my skin coming off. And the contents were in my mouth,” Violet told Channel 7 News about what happened on June 14.
The child’s mother immediately took her to the bathroom and held her face under cold water while her father, Jody, called the ambulance. According to him, his daughter’s screams of pain were “horrible”, and the skin practically came off in some areas, including the mouth.
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“I felt a little guilty, as I had commented that if it was heated, it might become a little softer, but I didn’t imagine that Violet would put it in the microwave”, commented Jody, reflecting on what happened.
Hospital admission and future perspective
Emergency teams quickly arrived at the scene and provided first aid. Violet was taken to Gold Coast University Hospital, where she remained hospitalized for a week receiving specialist treatment for her burns.
The case gained relevance when the institution recorded that Violet was the second child hospitalized that week with injuries caused by a squishy toy — a sign that the viral trend presents serious risks that many parents and educators are completely unaware of.
