A young girl has had a 10-centimetre section of her intestine removed by doctors after swallowing five magnets while playing with her brother at home.
Nurdan and Ali Guler, who have two children and live in the district of Aliaga in the western Turkish province of Izmir, bought their son Mete a magnetic toy called an ‘Intelligence Cube’.
On 6th March, Mete was playing with the toy when his sister, two and a half years old, joined him.
When the parents discovered that little Cemre had swallowed several pieces of the toy, they observed her for the rest of the day, believing she may pass them when defecating.
However, Cemre complained of a stomach ache and started to vomit so her parents took her to hospital.
In the X-ray, doctors determined that the little girl had swallowed five magnetic pieces and she was rushed into surgery when they saw that her intestine had been punctured.
Medics removed the pieces as well as a 10-centimetre damaged section of her intestine and the girl spent five days in hospital.
Following the near-three-hour operation, Izmir Kent Hospital Paediatric Surgeon Specialist Dr Tunc Ozdemir said it was the second case of a child swallowing magnets in the past year.
Dr Ozdemir said: “When I saw the patient, she had severe abdominal pain and was vomiting. Based on my previous experience, I guessed more or less what had happened. I told the family that she needed an immediate operation.
“Intestinal obstruction and perforation are very severe conditions for a two-and-a-half-year-old child. As we predicted during surgery, four magnets were in one intestine and another was in the other intestine, and they attracted each other. Since they are powerful magnets, the two intestinal walls between them melted over time, causing the magnets to bond together.”
He added: “There were three holes in one part of the intestine. We had to remove about 10 centimetres of the intestine and repair the hole in the other intestine.”
Cemre’s father Ali Guler said: “This colourful toy can be very harmful to children. Such small, magnetic toys should not be kept at home. We witnessed our daughter suffer a lot. She’s fine now, thank God, but God forbid anyone else experiences this kind of situation.”
To find out more about the author, editor or agency that supplied this story – please click below.
Story By: Feza Uzay, Sub-Editor: Joe Golder, Agency: Newsflash
The Ananova page is created by and dedicated to professional, independent freelance journalists. It is a place for us to showcase our work. When our news is sold to our media partners, we will include the link here.
