Unattended toddler suffers terrible third-degree chemical burns from superglue

The Manners family had flown from the United Kingdom to Brazil to spend Christmas with family. 19-month-old Torben Manners was left in a nursery where he managed to douse himself in superglue. The superglue reacted with the cotton clothes he was wearing, resulting in third-degree burns. Torben's family is currently trying to raise funds to bring Torben back to the UK where they can get better treatment.

Torben's parents, Jodie and Yohann, planned to spend six-months with Yohann's family in Brazil. The move was planned to allow Yohann's family to have time with Torben, and for the family to reduce their living expenses. The family plan of returning to the UK in March was disrupted by a pre-Christmas accident.

Jodie received a call that Torben had been in an accident involving glue at a nursery he was in. Jodie thought that Torben had ingested PVC glue which is a common glue related accident. The new parents were terrified to find that Torben was coated with superglue and had horrific burns on his body.

The parents first did not understand how a glue related accident could result in the burns. They later found out that superglue contains the chemical cyanoacrylate, which has an exothermic reaction with cotton. Adding to the burns, The Daily Mail reported that Torben had an allergic reaction to the glue.

Spending Christmas and New Year's Eve in the hospital, Torben was released on New Year's Day. Torben had a skin graft surgery in Brazil, but his family hopes to bring him to Scotland's Royal Hospital for Sick Children.

Jodie started a GoFundMe page to fund Torben's medical repatriation. On the page, she revealed that medical escort back to the UK could cost between £6,000-£10,000. Earlier, Jodie had set the goal of the fundraiser as £5,000. Once the goal was met, she increased it to £8,500.

Trying to keep the fund usage transparent Jodie stated that the funds would be used for Torben's treatment. Any leftover amount would be used to take legal action against the nursery where the incident occurred, the first hospital which treated Torben's burn by pouring Coca-Cola on it, and the glue manufacturing company for not having a warning label on the product. She stated that any amount left after the legal action would be donated to the Burns Unit at Hospital Joao XXIII in Brazil.