Warning: This article contains graphic images which some readers may find distressing.
A mother has spoken out after her nine-year-old son was left with horrific burns following a 'freak accident' at home.
Last month, Lauren Morrow was woken at around 5am to the sound of her young son, Ashtyn Pitts, screaming as he entered her bedroom and informed her that something was wrong.
The 32-year-old mum and her husband, Chris Johnson, 43, immediately rushed into their son's bedroom and were met with the smell of 'burning', leading them to turn on the lights to discover burn marks across Ashtyn's neck and hand.
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The schoolboy had been charging his tablet on his bed using an extension lead, but the charger had come loose and made contact with the 'sentimental necklace' he'd been sporting around his neck.
This led to a 'freak accident', which saw Ashtyn electrocuted in the middle of the night. The shock woke Ashtyn up and he immediately ripped off his chain, leading to painful burns.
The youngster was informed he'd suffered second degree burns on his hands and third degree burns on his neck after being rushed to a local hospital, with worried mum Lauren saying her son initially 'didn't want to look' at the marks on his skin.
On social media, she shared photographs from the ordeal, which she described as 'very traumatic' for Ashtyn, and urged others to be extremely cautious when charging electrical items on or near a bed.
Lauren, from Jena, Louisiana, US, wrote: "It was a freak accident but it could have been a deadly freak accident and thank god that it wasn't. [Ashtyn and his brother] came into our room screaming saying something was wrong.
"Me and his dad got up and ran to their room and before we even got to their room, we could just smell burned plastic."
Describing the moment she turned on the light and saw her son's burns, Lauren said she was 'horrified'.
"My heart just fell out of my chest. You can't show emotion during a time like that because he would freak out. On the inside I was having a mini heart attack. I was horrified," she said.
Ashtyn was given pain medication and saline solution at the hospital, with his wounds left open in a bid to let them heal. The nine-year-old was scheduled to have a debridement on 24 October and is waiting to be told if he will need a skin graft in the future or not.
"If it got any deeper on his neck it could've touched the artery on his neck and he could've bled out. It could've killed him. The [burns] on his neck because they're so bad he doesn't feel it. It burned off his nerve endings," Lauren explained.
"Some of the skin is exposed on the front and he's starting to feel it. Most of the pain is coming from his hand."
The mum hopes to raise awareness of the dangers posed by charging electrical appliances in bedrooms, saying Ashtyn's ordeal should act as an 'eye opener' for many.
Lauren said: "He'll never charge his tablet on his bed again. We've told my kids that we don't like them charging stuff because this could happen.
"During the weekdays they charge it in the kitchen but this was the weekend so we were lenient. They don't even get to put it in their bedrooms anymore and it's completely restricted to the kitchen.
"So many of us do it but let this be an eye opener to everyone that this is something you shouldn't do."
Topics: Apple, Real Life, Technology, iPhone, World News, US News
Danni King