I Wish This Was A Joke...

Hey, everyone:

So, I learned a classic lesson that many people could relate to one way or another, but it is to appreciate certain loved ones around me more than ever due to an incident that occurred around 2:30PM PST today. 

My boyfriend, Jon, was hanging out with me in my dorm room when he sat down on my disk chair when I suddenly heard a fizzing, sizzling sound start getting louder and louder. At first, I thought it was coming from outside, but, instead, Jon suddenly jolted upright in pain at started throwing off his jeans and underwear. I sat up on my bed and saw him already in his pajama pants and what looked like a smoke grenade going off in his jeans and underwear on the floor. The room quickly filled up with a thick stench and the smoke, so I immediately told him to open up the window all the way before covering my ears since I suspected that the fire alarm was gonna go off. Sure enough, it did, but only in my dorm room instead of the whole dormitory. The people in my hallway came over in concern but were immediately escorted outside.

Turns out, what happened was my boyfriend's fully-charged spare phone battery (a lithium ion battery for a LG G3 Android phone) was punctured possibly by a spare quarter in his back jean pocket. They were both next to each other in his wallet. After walking all the way to Student Health Services and finding out they were closed, I called a friend up to transport us to the nearest hospital after finding three (3) major 2nd degree intense heat burns on Jon's upper back thigh, on his hand, and splattered all over his left arm. He assured me he was not feeling much pain and was actually in pretty good humor about it, but I still cannot help but think what would have happened if he was not able to get his pants off in time, or what if it had exploded while he was sleeping...

This was especially disconcerting after returning to my stench and smoke-filled dorm room and finding a huge burn stain on the floor next to his completely destroyed jeans, wallet, debit cards, and health card. His underwear even had the three (3) burn holes in the exact spots where his skin was blistered, blackened, and scorched, imagining how much worse it could have been he had only been a bit slower in his actions...

After that whole ordeal (which took all day to deal with), Poison Control was called to see if the lithium ion fumes we inhaled were toxic enough to be critical, but they said we should be fine. I was coughing all day from the toxic fumes, though. However, my Resident Director did say that it would be a good idea for me to not stay in my dorm room tonight due to the terrible, thick fumes still in my dorm, so I am staying at my boyfriend's tonight to also help take care of him. He is doing fine now, but the whole thing still worried me a lot, at least at first.

However, we still need to talk to a legal adviser about this LG G3 Android lithium ion battery exploding on my boyfriend because this is so concerning that a simple quarter could cause so much damage to him and to my room. I don't even know how we are gonna be able to pay his medical bills... If anyone carries around a spare battery in their wallet or pockets--hell, even the regular batteries in your phones right now--PLEASE do NOT carry them around in there!! I would not want anything like this happening to you guys as well. Trust me, this is something anyone can live without.

With love,

~*TuxSonic*~