It seems like there’s always a new fad “toy.” Something that EVERY child and their brother are completely OBSESSED with. They’re the kinds of things that randomly become popular at a super rapid pace, and then become over-produced because of the insanely high demand.
Today’s current fad is the infamous fidget spinners. Often made up of metal or plastic materials, the spinners are triangle-shaped widgets that spin between your thumb and index finger.
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They’re said to be an aid for difficulties with concentration and a stress-reliever, but many would argue that they’ve become the world’s greatest distraction.
Of course it wouldn’t be a fad toy if it didn’t warrant both praise and criticism from parents and experts everywhere.
Warning: Graphic Images Ahead
John Harris has a warning for all parents this week after a fun but acknowledgably stupid activity with a fidget spinner landed his son in the hospital with stitches.
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The father-son duo were playing with a plastic fidget spinner and an air compressor—spraying the air across the gadget to make its motion spin more rapidly.
“We had been playing with it for a while and all of a sudden the plastic on the fidget spinner exploded,” John wrote to Facebook.
That’s when John says the spinner—which was in his hand—pelted his son’s face between his nose and mouth.
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They rushed to the emergency room for stitches, and two weeks later, the boy’s face is healing nicely, but John wants other parents to know the dangers of misusing the fad toy.
“I am sharing so no one else has the same stupid idea that I had. We were lucky it missed his eyes. It could have been much worse.”
His warning post has since garnered nearly 300,000 shares from concerned parents.
The scariest part is that John is not alone.
25-year-old Alexander Dögl recently made the same decision to experiment with an air compressor and fidget spinner—hoping to make it “go faster.”
Along with some friends, Alexander did the same thing John and his son were doing, before the toy exploded, landing him in the ER.
“I held it in my hand and sprayed air on it. It started to go faster until fumes started to come out of it. Then it exploded,” he told local news.
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His thumb immediately began gushing blood, and his friends rushed him to the hospital where he got six stitches. But that wasn’t all.
“I was sent for X-rays, and they saw that I had a fracture in my thumb and the tendon had also been damaged.”
In both cases, the situation could have been much different. Like John said, had the spinner hit his son’s eye, there’s no telling what a few minutes of entertainment would have meant for that little boy’s future.
This isn’t to say that all fidget spinners are bad. But may these scary experiences serve as a warning to all parents and users of fidget spinners, no matter what the age, to use the toy responsibly. It’s not worth the risk.
