Teenager is in Induced Coma After Being Allegedly Set Alight

A 17-year-old woman is in an induced coma after she was allegedly set on fire by her boyfriend.

A young woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was taken to the Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital with severe burns to her arms, legs and upper body after she was allegedly set alight near a Logan garage at a home in Marsden.

Police will allege that petrol was thrown over the woman after an argument with her 17-year-old boyfriend of two years over a mobile phone.

The pair were understood to be living together at the house previously rented by his mother, when the incident occurred about 4pm on Friday.

Friends, who were at the home at the time of the incident, claimed that the man was stripping paint from a car in the garage, while holding a cigarette, when the pair began arguing and during the struggle, the petrol can the man was holding spilt and the woman was set alight. “The bottle was being knocked and fuel went over both of them. The flames engulfed her and he tried to smother them,” the friend said.

A friend said they hosed the woman and got her in the shower, and called paramedics and neighbours for help.

Paramedics found the woman having been set ablaze and treated her at the scene before taking her to hospital where she was placed in an induced coma and underwent surgery.

The woman’s family and friends took to Facebook their devastation over the incident. “She is only 17 years old, she has her whole life ahead of her and she does not deserve this. You’re not giving up on me this easy, I know you can get through this, you’re a fighter. I love you,” her sister wrote.

The teenager’s condition stabilised late yesterday but her friend, Danielle ­Wilson-Smythe, who has set up a fundraising account for her recovery costs, said confidence would be the teenager’s greatest battle would be a potentially horrific scarring. “She will need a new start in life. She will have to have ongoing medical treatment and skin grafts,” she said.

Meanwhile, the woman’s partner is in custody and due to face court over the incident today charged with acts intended to cause grievous bodily harm.

Sources: News.com.au and Dailymail.co.uk