Girl, 10, left with skin ‘melting’ off her face from microwave squishy toy trend

A girl has suffered from horrific facial burns from a squishy toy after engaging in a social media trend that went wrong. 
The girl’s father said he saw his daughter’s skin “coming off” and ending up in her mouth during the horrific incident. 
Violet Zerbst, 10, had decided to microwave a gel-filled fidget toy in an attempt to make the toy softer. 
Violet from Gold Coast, Australia, said she had seen people do similar things to squish toys on social media, prompting her to try the trick. 
The girl placed the toy in a microwave heating it up for 30 seconds. After taking the toy out of the microwave, she started to squeeze it. The microwaved toy suddenly exploded, leading to the boiling hot contents bursting onto her face, and leaving her screaming in pain. 
 

After hearing her screams Violet’s mother rushed her to the bathroom and held her face under a cold tap, while her father called the ambulance. 
Speaking to 7News the 10-year-old said: “I could feel my skin coming off. And it was in my mouth.” 
 

Recounting the horror, Violet’s dad, Jody Zerbst, said: “I was trying to enjoy the soccer. It was Sunday morning and I think Brazil were playing and I felt a little bit guilty actually because I had made the comment that if it (the squishy) was heated up it might be a bit softer but not thinking that Violet would put it in the microwave.” 
Jody said the sound of hearing his daughter screaming in pain like that was “horrific.” 
He added: “The skin sort of all peeled off and as it was in her mouth, she was trying to spit this out.” 
The girl was rushed to Gold Coast Hospital University where she was treated for about a week. 
 

Violet is the second child who had been admitted to the hospital during the last week that suffered burns from a squishy toy. 
The shocking ordeal has raised concerns around the dangerous trend of microwaving squishy toys on social media sites like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. 
The incident in Australia comes only months after a child from Illinois, America, was left suffering from second-degree burns after attempting to microwave a similar toy. 
Nine-year-old Caleb Chabolla was injured after he microwaved a Needoh cube toy. The boy said he had heard from his friends microwaving the toy would make it softer due to the social media trend. Like Violet in Australia the toy exploded, leaving the boy with serious burns on his face and hands. 
Whitney Grubb, Caleb’s mother, recounted the incident to ABC7 Chicago. She told the outlet: “He was crying and just yelling, ‘It burns, it burns.”
She added: “The right side of his face was kind of melting off, basically.”