Some Owners Of Defective Cellphones Have Suffered Serious Burns

If you are a cellphone owner, you may recall that Samsung, the noted electronics company, recalled its Galaxy Note 7 following incidents in 2016 where the phones spontaneously caught fire. This is an example of a popular product from a respected company that was defective to the point of leaving people with serious injuries, followed by plenty of lawsuits.

Following 35 reports that the Galaxy Note 7 was overheating, Samsung recalled every phone that had been sold: approximately one million. They moved quickly to correct the problem and came out with replacement phones. Unfortunately, five of those smartphones caught fire as well. Samsung told owners to shut down their phones and recalled every unit.

The likely cause

Several months after the fire problems developed, Samsung announced that a battery design failure had been at fault in the first round of overheating issues and a product defect was the cause of the second round of incidents. The power source for cellphones are very thin lithium-ion batteries, and the liquid inside is very flammable. A thin layer of plastic separates the battery’s negative and positive sides, and if punctured or if too much pressure develops, the liquid electrolyte at that location can heat up, causing the battery to explode.

Significant injuries

In many cases, there was no warning before a cellphone fire occurred. For example, one workman was carrying the Galaxy Note 7 in his pants pocket when the phone spontaneously burst into flames, and he received deep burns to his leg. A personal injury attorney can tell you that burns can be catastrophic and those who sustain them are often faced with long periods of recovery and rehabilitation, though some nerve or tissue damage may never heal completely.

Being prepared

You do not like to think that products you use daily could be harmful in some way. However, the extensive burns that some Samsung Note 7 cellphone owners suffered are proof that a serious injury can occur when you least expect it. The message here is never to take your safety for granted.