An experiment gone wrong last week left a student with chemical burns to his face and lip, glass embedded in his chest and abdomen, deep cuts to his right hand, two fingers tinted blue and a couple fingertips hanging by the skin.
Khanh Ha told University Police Department detective Hank Middleton he was conducting an experiment in Room 213 of Sisler Hall on Jan. 11 when an explosion occurred after he added water to compounds he was handling, according to a police report released Wednesday.
Ha, a 27-year-old chemistry graduate student, was working with two compounds: sodium azide and chlorine glycine GABA acid, according to police. Ha said he had experimented with both before. But when he added water, the compounds exploded.
Ha, who was working inside a protective enclosure called a fume hood, was taken across the hall by two other people in the lab, according to police. When officer Henri Belleville arrived, Ha was washing his hands.
As Belleville approached, he noticed Ha's lab coat had small holes burned in it. The coat was stained with blood, and there was a puddle of it pooling at Ha's feet, according to police.
Ha was wearing safety goggles, but Belleville said he wouldn't open his eyes. He wouldn't talk either. To answer questions, he only nodded or shook his head.
Ha is in stable condition.
