Pueblo parent hopes people can learn from their son’s dry ice accident

After their son almost lost his eye, a Pueblo boy’s parent wants to bring awareness toward the dangers of dry ice bombs.

Eddie Branham, 9, damaged his eye when he said a group of friends encouraged him to check on a dry ice bomb near where he lived.

The bomb exploded in Branham’s face causing the damage.

Eddie had to get 27 stitches, he needs more surgery and he has to stay indoors.

Eddie Branham Jr., Eddie’s father, said he wants to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else.

“My heart is still broken, to see my son that way, I literally can’t even explain how it felt when we saw him that way, we were shocked,” he said.

Eddie’s family teamed up with Pueblo’s Grip Alot Records in order to bring awareness to this problem with the Black Eye Challenge.

Record Label owner JC Salazar started the challenge for this cause earlier this week. He said the problems with dry ice hits close to home.

“As a kid, I played with dry ice, but my father who purchased the dry ice was right there with us explaining the dangers of it,” Salazar said.

He said the Black Eye Challenge works just like the Ice Bucket Challenge, except people use a black marker to draw around their eye. People have 24 hours to take a picture with 10 people while having the black eye, then challenge 10 more people to do the same.

Salazar said he hopes through this campaign that people can understand the dangers of dry ice and make sure an incident like Eddie’s doesn’t happen again. It’s something Eddie’s father hopes for also.

Salazar said the challenge has already reached at least five states and Canada.