Texoma boy burned by chemicals on Kroger shopping cart

SHERMAN, Tex. (KXII) - A Texoma boy is recovering after something meant to protect him left him with burns on his face. How a trip to the grocery store quickly turned into a trip to the doctor.

“We go to Kroger weekly. We enjoy it, love the fuel points, you know. It’s just one of those, it took us by surprise," said Jessica Garcia of Sherman.

Garcia and her 7-year-old son, Jax Owens, went to do their weekly shopping at the Sherman Kroger Sunday. She said she noticed a gel-like substance on the shopping carts, but wiped down as much as she could see before letting Jax inside.

“As we’re going through getting our groceries he just was telling me how his face was itching and burning, but I didn’t see anything," said Garcia.

Garcia says his face became red and swollen, and kept an eye on him that night..

“The very next morning, his lip was, even though it’s huge right now it was about 5 times bigger than that,” said Garcia.

A Texoma boy is recovering after something meant to protect him left him with burns on his... — A Texoma boy is recovering after something meant to protect him left him with burns on his face. How a trip to the grocery store quickly turned into a trip to the doctor.

Kroger spokesperson, April Martin, says the sanitizer being used by the store had not been diluted properly before using on carts.

“As soon as we found out about it we discarded the disinfectant that we were using, and we also designated a few of our associates and management to manage the agent to ensure that this doesn’t happen again,” said Martin.

“I cried out of pain for him and things like that. As a mom you know you don’t want to see your baby in pain and whenever you don’t know what’s wrong with them or anything like that. I’m okay baby," said Garcia.

Garcia said a doctor diagnosed Jax with second degree chemical burns on his face. At the time, Jax had other concerns.

“I thought I had a symptom of coronavirus,” said Jax.

Garcia doesn’t blame Kroger.

“I wanna bring awareness because if this is what happens with contact, I would hate for a smaller child to have ingested this,” said Garcia.

“My heart goes out to everyone, we’re all in this, and I don’t think anyone should be pointing fingers at all. I think we all need to come together and get through this pandemic together," said Martin.

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