DOCTORS extracted more than 50 magnets from a three-year-old girl’s stomach in an intricate surgical procedure at a public hospital.
A BDF Hospital specialist paediatrician also removed two magnets from a 10-month-old only last week.
Both children had swallowed the objects that were parts of the toys they were playing with.
The two separate incidents have prompted BDF Hospital officials to urge parents to be on the alert.
The operations were conducted by a team headed by BDF specialist paediatric surgeon Captain Dr Abdulrahman Ibrahim Al Shafei.
“Parents must be careful while buying toys that contain magnets and small batteries,” he said.
Dr Al Shafei urged the public to avoid buying tiny magnetic balls sold in the market as well as refrigerator magnets, which often attract children because of their shape and colour.
“Magnets are considered more dangerous when two or more pieces of them are swallowed, because the attraction process between them leads to holes and cracks in the wall of the intestine and stomach.
“Allowing young children to play with them, without the supervision of parents or an adult, can be dangerous.”
Toys with magnets are hazardous, warn medics
The BDF Hospital, in a statement, said both incidents were serious and would have threatened the children’s lives if not for urgent medical intervention.
“The team extracted magnetic pieces ranging in size from five millimetres to three centimetres, which the children swallowed while playing,” said the statement.
“This led to holes in the wall of the stomach and intestine, which resulted in severe abdominal pain, blockage and twisting of the intestine, high temperature and nausea.
“It would have posed a threat to their lives, if not for quick medical intervention to extract them.”
The presence of magnets in the stomach of the 10-month-old led to “twisting and perforating of his intestine”.
Doctors extracted 51 small ball magnets from the three-year-old’s stomach
“The surgery lasted for about two hours, which required keeping the child under hospital care for 10 days,” the statement said.
The surgery on the three-year-old lasted for three-and-a-half hours, with doctors finding multiple holes on the stomach walls and intestine.
The child left the hospital after a week.
The cases separated by one week happened earlier this month.
Meanwhile, a BDF hospital representative told the GDN that the two incidents were received at the hospital’s emergency department.
“In the first case of the three-year-old girl, the caregiver witnessed the child swallowing a magnet and the family brought her to the hospital.
“An X-ray revealed several magnets inside her stomach.
“The child had swallowed 51 such pieces – small magnets that are ball-like parts of toys.”
The two magnets inside the toddler’s stomach
The representative said the second child was brought in as a suspected case of head injury as he was crying and vomiting.
“The parents thought that something had fallen on him and they suspected a head injury as the child vomitted.
“A CT scan revealed it was not the case. But the child vomited in the emergency department and the doctor suggested a detailed investigation, following which two magnets were found inside his stomach.”
Sources told the GDN that the child had swallowed magnets behind fridge memos.
Both children were discharged after recovery.
The medical team thanked Royal Medical Services director Major General Prof Khalid bin Ali Al Khalifa for his continuous support, guidance, and effort in improving surgical care for children in Bahrain.
raji@gdn.com.bh
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