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BOOM! THERE GOES DINNER "Youth injured when blasting cap and battery "EXPLODES" RIVERBANK NEWS-STANISLAUS COUNTY-RIVERBANK, CALIF. Tuesday, December 16, 1985 A 10-year-old Riverbank boy underwent surgery Monday night to save his foot and toes after a blasting cap he was playing with exploded. Roger Kiser was in considerable pain at Scenic General Hospital Tuesday morning and faces the prospect of two more operations to repair the damage to his left foot, reported his father, Roger Kiser, Sr. The Riverbank Fire Department was called to the Kiser’s Patterson Road residence about 5 p.m. Monday. Fire Chief Preston Tucker said the blasting cap apparently was given to Roger by an 8-year-old Lathrop boy. Roger was kneeling on the floor and reportedly had his foot on the cap when he touched the two wires connected to the cap to a flashlight battery, touching off the blast. Tucker said first reports indicated the 8-year-old had found the cap somewhere around Sonora the day before and had brought it to Riverbank with him. However, he said the department also has received information that an individual in the rural Riverbank area has a number of caps in his possession. Judging by the corrosion on the cap, this one had been around for sometime, said Tucker. "We would like to point out the extreme danger of those caps and that they can cause a lot of damage and/or possibly death. They have been known to detonate from the heat of holding them in your hand." He urged anyone finding anything they suspect may be a blasting cap to contact the fire department or police or sheriff's departments. "We will be glad to pick them up and dispose of them," said Tucker. Roger Kiser, Sr. said his son, a student at California Avenue School is expected to remain in Scenic General Hospital for two weeks. The blast blew about a three-inch hole through Roger’s left foot - the flesh is off the bone, he reported. Both arms and legs are covered with shrapnel wounds and doctors fear fragments may have lodged in his stomach. They are hopeful, however, that they will be able to save his toes, said Kiser, adding that his son will require plastic surgery to repair the damage. (Volume LXXIII-No 55)" ***************** I will never forget this incident for as long as I live and I will not forget how lucky I am that my son was not blinded for the remainder of his life or how lucky he is. It was absolutely a miracle considering the hundreds of holes that were blown into the bedroom walls and ceilings that he did not have one mark on his face from the thousands of metal pieces flying through the air, during the explosion. Even today, 14 years later, he is still removing pieces of metal from his arms and legs, yet we can laugh and joke about the incident. Nevertheless, he knows that he is one lucky boy. I really thought there was nothing left on the face of this earth that could hurt me as much as what I suffered in that orphanage in Jacksonville, Florida, but I was badly mistaken. To stand there and see my beautiful child on that operating room table, all bloody and torn to pieces was the most horrible feeling I ever felt in my life. I would have gladly suffered it for him, if I could have and I would have gladly suffered the orphanage all over again, if that could have spared my son the pain and agony he was about to suffer for the next three months of his young life. I thought that the most horrible thing in the world would be to have a good body without a heart, but to have a good heart and no body has to be far worse. I have learned a very tough lesson about what really matters in life.