VIDEO NASTY Mother’s ‘guilt’ after gamer fan son has fit & gets horrific burns
A MUM is racked with guilt after her son suffered horror burns following an epileptic fit while playing computer games.
Anthony Rackley, 20, had been on his Xbox before he had a seizure and collapsed in the family bathroom.
He scraped his back on rough plaster before slumping against a hot towel radiator for 20 minutes.
Anthony’s skin has since healed but was left scarred. Mum Katie, 51, says her guilt will never end.
Katie said: “I had the tumble dryer and the television on downstairs, so I didn’t hear Anthony when he collapsed.
“His injuries were made worse by the fact we’d been retiling the bathroom.
“He fell on to the rough, raw plaster, scraping the skin off his back before he came to rest on the radiator.”
Anthony had been diagnosed with autism and epilepsy when he was nine and can suffer up to 100 seizures a day where he goes “blank” and “zones out”.
The condition makes it hard for him to socialise, but he can chat online while gaming.
So Katie, who is from Harefield, Uxbridge, was happy to buy him Fortnite for Christmas 2019.
She said: “We think Anthony must have been tired after playing on the Xbox too long and when he went to the bathroom, he suffered a seizure.”
She had no idea Anthony had been suffering in agony in the bathroom until he stumbled downstairs. Katie said: “He must have been slumped on the radiator, fitting, for around 20 minutes.
“The bars seared into his skin and he has been left scarred for life.” Later, surgeons took two strips of skin from another section of his back.
Thankfully, after six weeks his skin grafts were already healing well and Anthony recovering.
Katie said: “Anthony is actually proud of his scars now and will readily show them to people. But as a mother, I felt awful.
“Now, I check on him constantly. It can be frustrating for Anthony, he’s 20 now so wants some privacy, but I’m not taking any chances.
“The day my boy was burned alive is branded on my mind forever.”
Xbox declined to comment. Warnings on the firm’s website say: “A very small percentage of people may experience a seizure when exposed to certain visual images, including flashing lights or patterns that may appear in video games.” is now