A 4-year-old boy was taken to hospital by his family after two days of experiencing “colic stomach” pain, including “multiple episodes of vomiting and constipation”. After the initial examination at the hospital, the doctors diagnosed the boy with acute appendicitis and removed his appendix. However, the stomach pain continued and even three days after the procedure, he started to vomit bile.
EVERYTHING DETECTED IN ULTRASOUND
When her symptoms still didn’t subside two days later, doctors did an ultrasound to see what was wrong. That’s when they discovered the surprising reason for the boy’s pain: The boy had a bracelet in his stomach. Accompanying X-rays showed the foreign body showing an opaque ring of beads inserted into the child’s abdominal cavity. The parents were as baffled as the doctors, not seeing their son swallow anything unusual.
MAGNETIC BEADS DRAWN HOLES IN HIS GUNS
Worse still, the junk that had leaked into the body was blocking the boy’s intestines and even making holes in his intestines. To prevent further damage, the doctors performed an emergency laparotomy – an operation in which surgeons make an incision in the abdominal cavity – and removed the bracelet made of 18 hexagonal magnetic beads. They also repaired the holes in the boy’s intestinal wall.
CHILD IS GOOD
The child recovered quickly after the interventions and was discharged. At follow-up appointments, he appeared to be in good health. In a similar incident in 2020, a 5-year-old boy in China swallowed 123 magnetic beads that had to be removed from his stomach during a four-hour operation.