A young teenage boy from Tasmania had a terrible accident with a laser pointer that caused him to lose about 75 percent of his sight, as reported by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Ben Armitage, an optometrist of 14 years to the family said:

“He came in to see me and on the Friday night he’d got a hold of a laser pen and unfortunately shined it in his eyes for a very brief period of time”

Ben took a photo of the boy’s eyes and discovered that he had burned his retinas and irrevocably damaged his eyes. Ben had said that:

“Unfortunately, that’s the area where your detailed central vision takes place and therefore it’s had somewhat of an exaggerated effect on how much sight he’s lost”

The damage occurred immediately that the boy pointed the laser into his eyes, his vision was impaired exactly at that moment the laser light shone on the back of his eyes, he didn’t feel any pain but the damage had been done. The part of his eyes that were damaged was an area called the macula, in cases like this that meant that the blindness was very likely to be permanent. The optometrist, Ben, was hopeful that some of his vision may return once the swelling had subsided a little, however the boy had to be prepared for the fact that he may only live his life with 25 percent vision. The Chief Executive of Optometry in Tasmania, Geoff Squibb, has since warned parents about the dangers of laser pointers and especially in relation to children, who don’t always really understand the gravity and seriousness of or trying foolish things like shining a laser into thier eyes. He says:

“Parents are better off trying to warn children of them after this particular case where the future of a young person has been seriously affected.”

The repercussions of this can be absolutely devastating, what looks like a harmless toy is in fact a ‘silent destroyer’ of retinal components of your vision.

In 2009 Emily Gavigan, during her sophomore year at the University of Scranton, was alarmingly paranoid and regularly rambled. She was convinced that terrible things were about to happen to her family. Emily’s parents were very concerned too but didn’t really know what to do, but the Gavigans were not able to turn a blind eye to the situation any more, especially when Emily mysteriously disappeared one afternoon! For the afternoon in question none of the family were able to get in touch with her for a full 24 hours, until finally they got a call from Emily’s Grandparents in New Jersey to say that she had turned up there unexpectedly. She had driven all the way to New Jersey from Pennsylvania without any money at all, flying through the tolls as she went without paying! WHen she arrived there she said that a truck had followed her all the way. Grandfather looked out of the window for the truck, but he didn’t see any trucks, emily’s parents came to the conclusion that it really was the time to get her some professional help. The doctors thought that Emily’s problems were psychological, like her parents had thought, and though they ran tests on her and tried various medcine, nothing seemed to have an effect. The treatments, if anything, made Emily even worse and at this point the doctors thought that her condition may be physical in nature, like a tumor on the brain, but they couldn’t find any physical evidence that this was the case either. The whole family tried everything they could, but desperately nothing really helped or got to the bottom of the problem and all the time Emily was still getting worse. In a strange turn of events the family were alerted to an episode of the ‘Today Show’, and to their surprise and shock something made them sit up and pay attention! The story they heard was of a New York Post reporter, Susannah Cahalan, she wrote an article about the time she spent a month thinking she was for sure losing the plot. The storey sounded very similar to what the family had experienced with Emily, which prompted the doctors to then run tests on Emily! Susannah suffered from a condition of anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, which causes the immune system to attack parts of the brain, causing neurological damage and strange behaviour. Emily’s doctors were not receptive at all to the family’s suggestion and queries, they were convinced that the family were just grasping at straws. After some time though Emily was in fact tested for the condition, and guess what, it was positive! Now Emily had not only a correct diagnosis but could be considered for treatment that could actually help. The Long road to recovery had finally started and there was light at the end of Emily’s long dark tunnel, finally. She could at last begin to return to the life she had before the condition robbed her of her mental faculties. And so in 2012, after Emily had recovered she then joined Cahalan on the ‘Today Show’ and shared her story too of how the show had really saved her life. Many miles away in Omaha, Nebraska, another family, the Jensen family, were watching this time as the Gavin’s had previously. Their daughter Madison was going through the same sort of experiences and had the same symptoms Emily had. Madison’s mother really didn’t know what was going on with her daughter, that is until she saw the show too. Then, after that, she felt positive that she had found what would also save her 6 year old. Madison is the wonderful age of 10, and is living happily thanks to Cahalan and Emily sharing and talking about their stories on television. Her mother hopes that one day they will be able to also share Madison’s tale and again help someone else too!

Nickolas Conrad, a 15 year old boy from Arkansas was woken up suddenly in the night with the sensation of fire on his neck, like he had been set on fire. The burning was intense, but he hadn’t been set on fire, it was his so called friends that had pranked him, but this wasn’t an ordinary prank, it was much more serious. Nickolas said:

“I just want them to leave me alone. They’re not my friends anymore and they’re not going to be”

It’s been called by some the “Hot Water Challenge” where people are pouring boiling water on unsuspecting others…

Everyone is now being warned about a seriously dangerous new thing that is spreading via the internet. Nickolas was a victim of the insane new trend that is going on. One particular night after Nickolas had fallen asleep, his so called friends crept to get some boiling water from a microwave. It was really intensely hot when they poured the boiling water on him. Nickolas said:

“I felt this really bad burning on my neck and when I woke up and I started screaming and crying. It was the worst pain of my life”

Nickolas’s so called friends had burned him before with a cigarette lighter, he just wanted to be left alone! He Said:

“I just want them to leave me alone. They’re not my friends anymore and they’re not going to be”

Nickolas isn’t alone and their are others that have been really badly burnt or injured in this cray trend, an 11 year old girl called Jamoneisha Merrit was burned on her face when her so called friends threw boiling water at her. In Florida a girl died, she was 8 years old and died because she attempted a version of the hot water challenge, her cousin challenged her to drink boiling water through a straw. Several months after the grave injuries she suffered she died. Diane Johnson, the aunt of the little girl who died is now trying to raise awareness about this dangerous growing trend, and to make others realize the grave consequences. Diane says:

“Parents, talk to your kids about these challenges. Don’t just give them your phone and let them go by. Watch what they are doing”

This really must STOP. Please share this article and raise awareness any way you can so parents will talk to their children and make sure they know how really dangerous it is!

“Do good. Recognize good. Make the world better.” I think this story is truly wonderful, it really make me feel good inside! This guy proved that one seemingly insignificant gesture can mean the world to its recipient. If you’ve traveled before on an airplane then you have probably already seen the special treatment that is afforded to members of our nation’s amazing armed services. This guy took that step further and after the service membres were allowed to board the flight first, as is customary, he thought that this wasn’t nearly enough for all the hard work they him and his fellow service men and women do and their willingness to put their lives at stake to protect everyone’s freedoms. A man got up from his seat and told the woman in uniform, who boarded the flight after everyone else in first class, that he was sat in the wrong seat, and actually he was sitting in her rightful seat. She was a little confused at first but when she realized what was happening she was very grateful. One great deed deserves another, and as another woman had seen what was happening and this guy was giving up his seat to the service woman she decided to let him know what that meant to her. She gave him some money to treat himself, but he declined the money as he didn’t need a reward for his actions. The United States Of America is truly great because of people and the actions they take exactly like this, and the mistake is thinking that the american people do not appreciate military personnel. And this storey really reinforces that and the thoughtfulness of good people. “If everyone treated people the way you treated the servicewoman, the world would be [a] better place,” Titus wrote in a note for the man. And though he refused, according to Titus, she adds that people should make an effort to do, and recognize, all the good in the world. If you’re like me then you too think that the great servicemen and servicewomen really must be treated to be as special as they are. If you think so too then please do share this lovely warm storey with family and friends.

Erica and David Lacey met at work and became really good friends, things progressed fast and about a year later they became romantically involved. They got engaged and were committed to each other, in love and tied together in holy matrimony for the rest of their lives, but what they didn’t know was how long the rest of their lives actually was. The day of the wedding got closer and closer, sadly Erica started to feel poorly and experienced chest pains, and so she visited her doctor when she wasn’t getting any better. The doctors ran tests and a CT scan revealed that she had a growth, a tumor near her heart and what looked like another to the rear of the diaphragm. It turned out she had a rare form of lymphoma, but she only found out, sadly, days before she was due to be married. Erica had treatment immediately and she was told that it would be best to cancel her wedding because of the chemotherapy she must undergo, but the two of them, to be husband and wife wanted to push ahead with the wedding!

They went ahead and got married while Erica was undergoing chemotherapy, her only worry was if her bandages would be on the wedding photos.

Two years is the total time she lived after her diagnosis, and the couple took every minute of the time to be with each other, Erica was passionate about photography and took a camera everywhere to document all the moments she had that she wanted to capture. When Erica died the camera was full of photos, 300 of them, that told her storey and her celebration of life right up until the end. About a year after something terrible happened and Dave’s house was burgled, the precious camera of all the memories was taken too, amongst all the thing taken it was the only thing he really cared about and couldn’t replace.

He was absolutely convinced that he would never see the photos again because he hadn’t got any copies or even downloaded the photos off the camera.

In a fortunate turn of events Paul McClaskey and Jerry Verdugo, detectives, had arrested a man, Dave Aguilar in relation to the theft of computers and had interestingly found many receipts from a pawn shop, so they decided to investigate further, this was the link they needed! The pawn shop didn’t really help them, all apart from a canon camera, Jerry one of the detectives remembered being very angry as he looked through the camera at the storey of a young wife dying, and pondering how could anyone have carried out this crime!

Finally they found Dave, the victim of the robbery and reunited him with his camera and all those wonderful memories.

Had it not been for the awesome work of these to detectives, tirelessly looking for the victim of this crime Dave would have got his photos of his wife returned back to him. Dave can now always keep safe those wonderful happy memories of his wife!