A mum has issued a stark warning to parents after her daughter swallowed a magnetic toy and had to be rushed to a hospital for an emergency operation.
Hayley Thake’s four-year-old daughter accidentally swallowed two small magnet balls she had been playing with.
Taken to the hospital after telling her parents what she had eaten the girl had to undergo emergency surgery to take them out of her bowel.
Hayley is now warning other parents of the dangers of magnetic toys, the Manchester Evening News reports.
In a Facebook post, she said: “I will never forgive myself for buying them but my four-year-old daughter accidentally swallowed two of these magnet balls. She’s just undergone surgery to remove them from her bowel. Once inside the body the magnets connect to each other with the organ tissue/lining being pinched in between, eventually burning a hole in it. Luckily my daughter told me she had swallowed them so we’re able to act quickly.”
“Please, I urge all parents if you have these magnet beads throw them away immediately. Currently, in the ward we are on there is a two-year-old who swallowed 14 of them. The consultant said they have so many cases and they should be banned.”
The Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT) went on to say there’s a disturbing trend in serious injuries from children swallowing small, round, coloured magnets from magnetic toys’, with Hayley’s being the most recent example.
CAPT said that if a child swallows the small balls, magnets effectively burn holes in their intestines or bowels.
Last year the Trust highlighted the case of another child, three-year-old Tomas Quinn, from Northern Ireland, who had part of his intestine removed after swallowing magnets.
