Bronx girl whose friend scalded her face with boiling water makes remarkable recovery
The 11-year-old Bronx girl — who suffered horrific burns on her face after a friend poured boiling water on her — left the hospital Friday looking like her old self.
“I’m so great,” Jamoneisha “Jamoni” Merritt gushed to the Daily News.
Jamoni, after spending 11 days at Harlem Hospital, gobbled up a turkey and cheese sandwich upon returning home.
“Now I’m dancing and listening to music,” she said.
Jamoneisha Merritt is beaming again after her friend severely burned her in a prank gone wrong. (FACEBOOK)
But Jamoni’s journey back to full health is not yet over.
The bubbly middle-schooler will likely miss the start of her 7th grade classes and require home-schooling, her mother said.
“Her arm is still raw it hasn’t healed yet … [and she] can’t go outside in the sun,” said Ebony Merritt.
“It’s going to take maybe about six months for all her color to come back in.”
Ebony Merritt posted the photos of her happy daughter after her release from the hospital. (FACEBOOK)
Jamoni was sleeping over a friend’s house on Aug. 7 when a pal doused her with scalding water in a prank that went gruesomely wrong.
The incident resembled the “Hot Water Challenge,” a YouTube-inspired trend in which kids pour boiling water on unsuspecting friends.
Jamoni was nearly unrecognizable after suffering burns over 85% of her face.
Aniya Grant Stuart, 12, was taken into custody following the incident, sources said.
The case was immediately turned over to Family Court because Aniya is a minor.
Aniya was said to have sliced open her wrist in a failed suicide attempt following the incident.
Jamoneisha was sleeping when the friend poured the boiling water on her. (OBTAINED BY DAILY NEWS)
Speaking out for the first time, Jamoni said Aniya and two other girls had warned her that she would be pranked if she fell asleep the night of the attack.
“I didn’t know what they was gonna do but I felt tired,” Jamoni recalled. “So after I was dancing I just sat on the couch and I fell asleep.”
She jolted awake feeling like her face was on fire.
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“I was screaming because it burned, it burned, it burned, it burned,” she said.
Aniya’s mother applied ice to Jamoni and gave her a cold shower.
The girls offered a half-hearted apology and said it was an accident, Jamoni said.
“They were saying stop yelling and buggin,”
Jamoni recalled.
Jamoni’s mother said she thinks the three girls and the mom should all be arrested.
“The mother is just as involved as the other kids,” Ebony Merritt said. “This happened at 4 a.m. but they didn’t come to my house until 5:30. That means she was there for an hour and a half while they were trying to cover their tracks.”
The family’s lawyer, Paul Prestia, said a meeting with representatives from the city’s Law Department left him confident that charges will be filed against “anyone responsible for harming Jamoni that night.”
“She needs some semblance of justice for those scars,” Prestia said.
“Her spirit and courage should really be an inspiration to so many young people — especially those who’ve been the victims of bullying,” Prestia added.
Earlier in the day, Ebony Merritt posted photos to Facebook of her beaming daughter relaxing at home.
“How can you say someone’s happy to be home[?] Can’t you see the look on her face,” wrote mom Ebony Merritt. “She’s in good spirits. She’s great she want[s] to thank all of y’all for the love that you showed her.”
“God is good all the time,” she added.