Girl, 7, loses eye after ‘vape battery acid explodes in her face’

A schoolgirl has lost an eye after a vape ‘exploded in her face’, covering her skin in battery acid.

Ruby Grainger had just bought an ice cream from a van parked near her home in the suburb of Tallaght in Dublin when the incident happened.

The seven-year-old was walking past a bonfire – lit by youth in the area – when a battery in the flames burst shards in her face.

Her mother Ciara, 32, told the Irish Mirror: ‘She was walking across to the van and when she was coming back bang, something exploded in her face.

‘All I hear is screaming, she was hysterical, when she got to the house I could have collapsed.

‘The blood was rushing all down her face, I put her to my chest and rang the ambulance, I was frantic.’

Ruby was rushed to Tallaght Hospital by ambulance and that same night she was transferred to the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital.

Her family was told that doctors removed her eye during an emergency operation on October 5.

‘Doctors said that this is the first case of this kind of damage from a fire, they have seen explosions but to lose her whole eye, the socket, everything,’ Ciara said.

‘I do not think it has properly hit me that the child has no eye now. For a split second her whole life changed, and mine too, when she lost her eye I lost mine.

‘If I could give her mine I would. I would give everything for her, she is only seven, and this never should have happened to her. I cannot believe it.’

The mother-of-four said doctors believe the damage was caused by battery acid as ‘the eyeball was like mashed potato’.

Little Ruby did not feel anything hit her eye, and the type of damage done would not be caused by a physical object.

After the accident, a family member checked where the fire was, and discovered remnants of several burnt-out vapes, confirming their suspicions.

A fundraiser has been launched for the victim, who will have to have a prosthetic eye fitted.

Doctors hope that Ruby’s eye socket will have healed well enough in six weeks, so she can get the operation.

For someone so young, she will have to undergo a number of changes in her life due to what happened, including having to relocate to a specialised school for visually impaired children.

Her mother said: ‘Ruby will also never be able to go to play like she used to, Ruby also has to learn to balance again due to having a blind side, and the biggest one is Ruby is no longer able to see out of her right eye.’

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