Bead bracelets that can be dispersed and combined are dangerous for children. Children swallowing these objects can result in stomach or intestinal perforation if not treated early. In an incident that took place in Bursa, a 5-year-old girl swallowed the magnetic bead bracelet she was playing with at home. Realizing the situation immediately, the family applied to Yüksek İhtisas Training and Research Hospital with their child.
Pediatric Gastroenterology Specialist Assoc. Dr. In the examination performed by Kaan Demirören, magnets were detected in the child’s intestines.
With the operation performed without delay, 38 magnets were removed from the child’s intestine. Assoc. Prof. emphasized the importance of early intervention to prevent stomach and intestine perforation in such cases. Dr. Kaan Demirören warned families that jewelry and toys should not be given to children, especially under 5 years old.
Underlining that swallowing foreign objects is an important problem today, Demirören pointed out that magnets, lithium ion batteries and highly absorbent objects have become an important problem recently. Emphasizing that they encountered many cases related to these objects, Demirören said, “Our patient swallowed bead-shaped magnets, which, although small, were made of substances we call neodymium, which have a strong attraction power.
These magnets are widely found in our society for various reasons. A significant portion of these are available as toys, and unfortunately, these toys can easily fall into the hands of small children. “Especially children under the age of 5 should not be given such small objects and should not even be around them, let alone use them as jewelry,” he said.
“INTERVENTION MUST BE IMMEDIATELY”
Stating that if more than one magnet is swallowed, it gets in the tissue in the stomach or intestines and starts to pierce that area after a while, Demirören said, “We usually encounter these cases in which the stomach or intestines are pierced within the first 24 hours. Although our patient’s luck was that we caught them in the intestines, we were able to remove these magnets with endoscopy.” We saw that there is a magnet in the shape of 38 beads.