Teen severely injured after lighting homemade ‘sparkler bomb’

A 15-year-old boy lost a leg, several fingers and possibly his eyesight when a bundle of homemade fireworks exploded in his face Saturday.

Rowdy Radford tied 180 sparklers together with electrical tape and went to light it when the device exploded in his face, sending metal shards into his face, according to KHOU-TV.

Radford suffered injuries to his whole body. He was taken to the intensive care unit at Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital where he was undergoing surgery for two days, according to KPRC.

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His left leg was amputated below the knee. His right leg was also injured. Both arms need screws and pins to hold his wrists and elbows together, according to KPRC. His hands were burned and several of his fingers were blown off. He had surgery on his eyes and doctors still are not sure if he will be able to see.

"We know he's going to pull through, it wouldn't be Rowdy if he if he didn't," Samantha Hansen, Radford's aunt, told KPRC.

Another boy, a friend of Radford's, suffered less serious injuries, according to KHOU-TV.

Radford's mother wants her son's gruesome fireworks experiment gone awry to serve as a lesson to others.

"I just want this out, I want everybody to see this so they'll know what happened, don't let their kids do this. It's not worth it," Wendy Smith, Radford's mother, told KPRC.

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