Beater Tangles Youth’s Tongue

The electric beater had ice cream on it, so 12-year-old Brent Bowles of Brea on Friday did what comes naturally. He licked it off.

But he didn’t turn off the beater first, and the springlike wire whip on the end wrapped around his tongue and would not let go.

Brea Fire Department Capt. Don Poe said that when he arrived, Brent was sitting in the bathroom “with this thing on his mouth.” Poe tried to pry it off, “but I just couldn’t . . . and it was so painful for him.”

Brent was sent to St. Jude Hospital in Fullerton. There, Brent said, they numbed his tongue with anesthetic, then bent the wire whip until it could be pulled off.

His tongue required a stitch or two for repair, but by evening Brent reported that “it doesn’t hurt as much as it did.”