Chinese toddler in ICU after dad sets off fireworks at home

A toddler in China recently landed in hospital after her dad set off fireworks in their home.

It was an attempt to cheer the sick girl up, he explained, but his plans went awry.

The three-year-old girl was admitted to the intensive care unit in Hunan Children's Hospital on Jan 17 for severe pneumonia after she breathed in the smoke and exhaust from the fireworks, reported Chinese media. 

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Speaking to reporters, the child's grandmother said she had asked the girl's father to set off the fireworks outside the house but her words fell on deaf ears. 

"While she was sleeping, she inhaled the fumes and became breathless," she said. 

Realising that the child was coughing violently, they rushed her to the nearest hospital.

A doctor emphasised that setting off fireworks in confined spaces isn't the best thing to do. "The fireworks contain carbon oxide, sulfur dioxide and other toxic gases, which are harmful to a child's respiratory tract," he said. 

He also revealed that the girl had already been coughing for three days, but the fumes from the fireworks made her condition worse.

Thankfully, the toddler's condition has since stabilised, although she is still in the hospital. 

In 2020, an eight-year-old boy in Dunhuang, China, was also hospitalised after throwing a firecracker into a manhole cover on a street.

The firecracker's explosion sent the boy flying into the air and smashed the manhole cover into several pieces.

claudiatan@asiaone.com