SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) A Utah mother is sending a warning about the danger of small magnets after her son narrowly escaped severe injury and possibly death.
DeAnne Flynn stuffed her children’s Christmas stocking with toy magnets found online. Her children are all older and she wasn’t worried. "They are really, really, dangerous and I had no idea. I just thought oh, fun toy."
Last week her eleven year old son started complaining of severe stomach pain. A doctor ruled out appendicitis and his illness was blamed on the flu. But his parents were still uneasy. "I just had this persistent feeling that mothers have that something is not right."
The Flynn’s insisted on a CT scan. It turned up small pieces of metal. Three very tiny, but very strong magnets, were unknowingly swallowed by her son as the children were eating popcorn, watching a movie, and playing with the magnets. "They were sticking them in their lip inside and out, they were experimenting with these tiny little magnets and eating popcorn."
One magnet became lodged in his appendix, the others in his intestine. Dr. David Skarda is the pediatric surgeon at Primary Children’s Medical Center who removed them. He says such surgeries are unfortunately common. His team treated six in just the last month. "They all have to be small enough to be eaten, but in terms of type of magnets we see all types. Generally speaking these magnets are part of, or intrinsic to toys."
Once inside Michael’s body the magnetic pull began to do serious damage. His mother says it forced his intestines and appendix together. "His intestines and his appendix were actually stuck and draped to a skin wall and it was pulling through his intestine."
Dr. Skarda says without surgical intervention what started out as innocent fun could have been the most costly of mistakes. "It could conceivably have become a life threatening problem."
DeAnne says she read the label too late. The box warns the toy is not for children, but she says it's in the fine print. "If I had known that this was a serious threat to my family there is no way it would have been in my home."
