A Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone exploded earlier this month and caused burns to a pregnant woman, with doctors stating that she will be scarred for life.
The victim Kathleen Walsh, 25, and her partner Daniel Collict, 29, were at home on August 29 when a Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone caught fire all of a sudden, just next to the victim who was sleeping on the bed.
Walsh, who is 22 weeks pregnant, suffered burns to her hand, as she tried to remove the burning smartphone from her 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 stated.
“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.”
According to a report from the Daily Star, the woman is being treated and doctors have stated that she will have to live with scars for the rest of her life.
Collict stated that Samsung has already been contacted and the company is investigating. While one Samsung representative offered a replacement phone, “one lady” working for the South Korean firm called up to couple to apologize.
Samsung in its statement stated, “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.”
