PAPILLION, Neb. (KMTV) — Fourth of July celebrations look a bit different at the Graham house; family, food, and no fireworks.
“I just don’t want to get near it,” Mady Graham, nine-years-old said. “I don't want to touch it, don’t want to deal with it.”
Five years ago, Mady was burned by a sparkler, something many think of as kid safe.
“I was being that overbearing mother,” Sarah Graham said. “Thinking I was being as safe as possible, gave the sparklers to the kids thinking they couldn't run around with it, that they just had to stand there and twirl. I had a bucket of water, supervision, then someone from up the street did a loud firework and Mady being four at the time went to cover her ears and as she covered her ears she didn't drop the sparkler.”
The sparkler hit behind Mady’s ear giving her second degree burns and a scar still visible today.
“So it goes from up here behind her ear and down on to a couple spots on her shoulder,” Sarah said. “When she brought the sparkler up she brought her shoulder up to her ear and trapped it so it burned her shoulder and neck in a couple of spots.”
“I remember them putting a patch on my neck and every single day before I went to bed we would put some kind of cream on it to make it feel better,” Mady said.
The Grahams hope sharing their story prevents another child from being burned.
“It wasn't until after this happened that I thought how stupid I was to hand a stick that is anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 degrees to my four-year-old.
Consumer Product Safety commission recommends children never play with fireworks. They found sparklers typically burn around 2,000 degrees - hot enough to melt some metals.
