Boy Suffered Chemical Burns from Spider-Man Watch – Investigation Pending!
Summary of eRumor:
A young boy fell asleep wearing a Spider-Man watch and woke up the next morning with second and third degree chemical burns on his wrist.
The Truth:
Our investigation into a report that a Spider-Man watch caused chemical burns on a boy’s wrist is ongoing.
A Facebook user named Melanie Crinklaw posted photos of an Amazing Spider-Man watch and what appeared to be chemical burns on a young boy’s wrist on February 11, 2015, with the caption:
“A friend of mine Karen Foster: This is the Spider-Man watch (bought from Target) Caden was wearing when he feel asleep last night. When he woke up this morning this is what we found. 3rd degree burn (the black) and 2nd degree burn around it. He just went into surgery, they have to dig out the chemical/3rd degree burn. Then they are going to apply cadaver skin over that. He is going to have to be out of school a few weeks until everything is healed, due to the high risk of infection. And possibly have another surgery later to graft his from his own skin. Feel free to share. I would have never thought something so small could turn into this.”
Within days, the post was shared and liked more than 100,000 times on Facebook. It should be noted, however, that the boy’s mother hadn’t commented on the claim, and the original post was the only place that the claim appeared online. One user forwarded the post to Target and questioned whether or not it was true. The retailer replied that it was looking into the claim:
“Thanks for bringing this to our attention. The health and safety of our guests is very important to us, and we’d like to look into this further. Please tell Karen to e-mail us at [email protected] with reference number 02907542. We look forward to hearing from her.”
TruthorFiction.com also reached out to Target for comment. Future updates will be posted here. The Spider-Man watch from the picture does not appear on Target’s website, and it wasn’t offered for sale on similar retailers’ websites, either. It’s not clear when, or if, Target offered the watch for sale.
Battery acid leaking from batteries that are used to power regular household items like watches can cause chemical burns in children. On a reference website for parents, the Texas Department of State Health Services warns that children can suffer chemical burns from damaged or misused batteries in children’s toys:
“Household batteries can cause chemical burns from leaking battery acid. Household batteries can overheat and rupture in several ways: 1) Recharging the wrong battery or using the wrong charger; 2) Mixing batteries; 3) Putting batteries in backwards (positive end where the negative end belongs and vice versa).”
Still, it’s not clear whether or not that happened here. Our investigation into this eRumor is ongoing, and future updates will be posted here.