A boy had to go through a life-saving surgery after they swallowed a total of 54 magnets thinking that they would become magnetic.
Rhiley Morrison, a 12-year-old, swallowed the magnets on 2 separate occasions because he was really keen to find out if he could turn himself magnetic.
He also wanted to know what the magnets would look like once they had passed through him.
4 days after swallowing them, Rhiley got worried because the balls did not come out the other end.
He then told Paige Ward, his mother, about the incident.
Paige took her son to the hospital, where doctors found out that there were around 54 magnetic balls inside the stomach of the boy.
Rhiley was rushed into surgery with fears that the magnets would burn his organs and harm him in ways that would be painful.
It took the doctors 6 hours to remove all the magnetic balls inside the stomach of the boy.
Rhiley has ADHD and Autism.
He is currently recovering inside their house.
The mother shared the news with the public to inform other parents of the potential dangers of these toys.
Paige, who is from Prestwich, Greater Manchester, said:
I was gobsmacked, just speechless when I heard the number he’d swallowed. The doctors guessed around 25-30 from the x-ray, but when he came out of surgery they said they got 54. I think what made it harder is that I just didn’t understand how or why he would swallow that many. Rhiley is massively into science, he loves experiments, he eventually admitted ‘I tried to stick magnets to me, I wanted to see if this copper would stick to my belly while the magnets were in’. It’s just so silly, but he’s a child and that’s what kids do. He also thought it would be fun seeing them come out the other end.
Paige said that Rhiley asked for the magnetic balls for Christmas with the money that he had saved up from himself.
The boy swallowed the first batch on January 1 and the second batch on January 4.
When the magnets did not come out, Rhiley got worried.
He woke up his mother at 2am on January 5.
She ended up rushing him to the Salford Royal Hospital.
Doctors sent him to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital via ambulance after finding out that there were too many of them inside him.
Complications caused by the magnets included Rhiley spending 10 days unable to move without vomiting green liquid.
He was also not able to eat or go to the toilet due to the bowel leak.
Page continued:
I don’t want other kids or parents going through that. When he did it I thought it was just him, he’s just been silly and done it, but the surgeon said they see this all the time. Magnets aren’t toys, they shouldn’t be sold as toys. My message to other parents is to just put them in the bin, don’t buy them in the first place. The surgeon said that if Rhiley didn’t tell me that day he’d swallowed the magnets he could have died. They could have clashed and ripped his bowel and he could have ended up with sepsis. Rhiley was lucky but some kids aren’t and won’t be. He’s taken all of his magnets out of his room now, he won’t entertain them. It was a really traumatic lesson for both of us.
Get well faster Rhiley!