'Tell me this is a dream': Autistic boy has hands blown-off by homemade bomb disguised as golf ball in Australia
Michael Boggan undergoes surgery to save fingers as police try to piece together what happened in friend's garden
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Your support makes all the difference.An Australian teenage boy has described the moment he had both of his hands blown off by a home-made bomb disguised as a golf ball, saying he wished it was a bad dream.
Michael Boggan, 15, said he was socialising with other boys at in a friend's garden in Leichardt, near Ipswich, Brisbane, when one offered him the device.
After apparently joking that it was full of heroin, one of the youths offered to give the ball to Michael, who is autistic, in exchange for a cigarette.
"I roll him a smoke and I give it to him," he told the Herald Sun newspaper.
Michael then said he played with the ball for a moment before hearing a massive 'boom'.
"I was shaking it up a little bit. I didn't know it would blow up," he said
"I couldn't see for two seconds, and I couldn't hear for two seconds.
"And then I looked at my hands and I was like 'tell me this is a dream, please tell me this is a dream'. "
He described seeing skin hanging from his arms.
After emergency surgery he now has only a little finger on his left hand, and a thumb on his right, while doctors are continuing to try to save and pin his index and middle finger, according to his mother Rebecca.
Ms Boggan said he also had shrapnel wounds all over his body.
"He's got holes in his legs, right down to his bones, from the ball bearings. He's got shrapnel wounds on his arms," she told the Herald Sun.
Michael's mother and stepfather, Michael Clifton, as well as the mayor of Ipswich, have urged that the 17-year-old boy who allegedly gave Michael the device, described as a "bully", faces the consequences of his actions.
Three other teens, aged between 15 and 18, were also taken to an Ipswich hospital.
Michael says he thinks that the main other boy involved may not have known that the device was explosive, saying he felt "guilty" for his friend. He also maintains that all others present were innocent.
Police investigations are ongoing but inspector Keith McDonald said those believed to be involved had not been "forthcoming" in providing information about what happened.
A fund set up by mayor Paul Pisasale has already raised $3,000 towards Michael's treatment.
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