Ecuador: Man Loses Fingers in Explosion while trying to charge cellphone battery

eluniverso.com / machine translated – SANTO DOMINGO OF THE TSÁCHILAS. Elsita Valencia, the mother of the one affected by the explosion, said that her son was trying to charge his cell phone with a homemade tool.

The battery was connected with improvised cables.

Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas –

A homemade alkaline battery burst in the right hand of a young man who had used this device to charge his cell phone. The detonation caused all his fingers to detach.

The 20-year-old was taken to Santo Domingo hospital, where doctors could not save the five fingers of his hand because the explosion affected the phalanges. The victim lost a lot of blood and was treated in an emergency.

The misfortune occurred on Thursday in the neighborhood Subteniente Pérez, in the northwest of Santo Domingo.

Elsita Valencia, mother of the wounded, indicated that when returning to his house he found his son bleeding, next to the cell phone and the batteries that had used to load the device.

The woman said that because her son did not have a charger for his cell phone decided to connect with short cables three double A batteries with a button battery, which are used in watches.

Apparently, the clock battery overheated by the power it received and exploded in the hand holding the phone battery.

No money for prosthetics

At the hospital, doctors told him that due to the severity of the accident, the fingers were mutilated from the phalanges, they proceeded to cure them and to amputate them to avoid infections.

Valencia said that they do not have the financial resources for a prosthesis because their son was the one who supported the home with plumbing. He was studying electricity for another job.

You will be hospitalized in the health home for a few more days until your recovery is satisfactory.

The danger of batteries

Edwin Ortega, a technician in maintenance and repair of communications equipment, warned how dangerous is the handling of batteries.

He said modern cell and laptop batteries are manufactured from lithium ions and are lined because this chemical is not compatible with metal or alkaline batteries, Ortega said.

He indicated that it is important to avoid bending or damaging the lining that protects them because they could explode.

“And they are not designed to be recharged or repaired, once a battery’s life or has started to swell, it’s better to replace it and leave the damaged battery in a technical center that knows how to dispose of it,” Ortega said.

Lenin Quintero, a specialist in Internal Medicine, said that batteries in general use dangerous components in their manufacture, which have caused poisoning in children and other damages.

He acknowledges that accidents like the one in Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas are not common in an emergency room, but he mentioned that sometimes the tutorials on the internet make us believe that everything is easy and safe when it is not. Read Article

SAFETY, SECURITY, HEALTH IN ECUADOR – THIS IS ONE BOOK THAT IS A MUST READ