A 28-year-old man had received the wrong end of a gender reveal device when one exploded as he was making it in his home in New York last Sunday. The explosion caused the death of the father-to-be and injured his brother as well.
New York State Police started an investigation on the incident, and reports identified the father-to-be as Christopher Pekny.
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Gender reveal device explosion
According to authorities, the father-to-be was preparing the device for a gender reveal party when it exploded. The accident happened on the morning of Sunday in Liberty, New York.
Christopher's brother, Michael Pekny, sustained a leg injury and was brought to Garnet Medical Center in Middletown. However, there is no update on his condition so far.
Police continue to investigate
Aside from the New York State Police's investigation, they are also joined by the NYSP Bomb Disposal Unit.
Authorities are still looking into why the gender reveal device exploded. The initial reports have not yet disclosed the cause of the explosion.
Gender reveal device tragedies.
According to a report from Fox40, this is not the first time that a gender reveal device caused a tragedy. In the previous years, there were also reports of disasters blamed on faulty devices for gender reveal parties.
Last month, a man from Michigan was also killed due to a gender reveal cannon. According to authorities, the family used it for a baby shower, and shrapnel from the cannon struck the guy from Michigan.
In September last year, a gender reveal party caused a wildfire in Southern California. The incident was also blamed on the gender reveal device used.
There have been reported incidents of gender reveal parties are going wrong when party poppers hurt the fathers-to-be.
How did gender reveal parties start?
Over the years, parents-to-be are trying to be as creative as they could be when holding gender reveal parties.
Blogger Jenna Karvunidis is credited for the invention of the gender reveal party. In 2008, she told the gender of her baby with a cake for her family.
However, last year, she condemned gender reveal parties that are getting out of hand. In a Facebook post, Karvunidis said, "Stop it. Stop having these stupid parties. For the love of God, stop burning things down to tell everyone about your kid's penis. No one cares but you."
Gender reveal parties have been criticized by some as well because of how it upholds gender norms.
A published study in 2017 criticized the parties, saying, "It allows adults to recuperate what they have learned from their gendered constructions, reinscribing expectations and assumptions onto the unwritten body of the unborn and propelling these ideals into the digital, social, public world."
Also, there were instances when these parties have been causing disappointment to parents and even children.
