14 DAY TRIAL // A Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone exploded earlier this month, causing horrific burns to a pregnant woman, with doctors revealing she’ll be scarred for life.
Warning: the photo gallery below includes detailed photos of the burns and viewer discretion is advised.
Kathleen Walsh, 25, and her boyfriend Daniel Collict, 29, were at home on August 17 when a Samsung Galaxy 5 caught fire all of a sudden, just next to the woman who was sleeping on the bed.
Walsh, who is 22 weeks pregnant, suffered terrible burns to her hand, as she tried to remove the burning smartphone from the bed. The device also caused a hole in the mattress, before the couple put out the fire using a bucket of water.
“It sounded like someone had lit a rocket. There was a really loud bang. The battery on Kathleen’s charging phone had set alight. It was glowing and melting into the mattress. We took the dog, opened all the windows in the house to keep it well ventilated and turned everything off, poured a bucket of water onto the mattress to cool the springs and drove to the hospital,” boyfriend Daniel Collict explained.
“If she had been sleeping straight in her conventional position the phone would have been right by her side. You could see from the smoke damage of her t-shirt that could have been so much worse. There was even smoke damage to her pillow.”
Samsung: We’re investigating
The woman is currently being treated at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital, according to the Daily Star, and doctors have said she’ll have to live with scars for the rest of her life.
Collict revealed that Samsung has already been contacted and the company said it’s investigating, though the way the firm handles the incident is disappointing in his opinion. While one Samsung representative only offered a replacement phone, nobody, except for “one lady” working for the South Korean firm, contacted the couple to apologize.
Samsung explained in a statement that it’s looking into the chase, but said that it’s not aware of any widespread issues affecting the Samsung Galaxy S5.
“There are no known safety issues with Galaxy S5 devices. Samsung takes all customer queries extremely seriously and this incident is currently being investigated and our customer services team is in direct contact with the customer regarding the matter,” the firm was quoted as saying.
