A teenager had to undergo life-saving surgery after he ingested 54 magnets hoping that they would make him ‘magnetic’.
Rhiley Morrison, 12 – who has autism and ADHD – swallowed the magnetic balls in two sessions as he was desperate to know whether that would make metals stick to his belly. He also wanted to see what they would look like after passing through his body.
However, he found himself in big trouble after realizing that the magnets did not actually come out from his rear and told his mother, Paige Ward, 30, that he swallowed a couple of them ‘by accident.’
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Paige then brought her son to the hospital where he was given an x-ray examination and to her and the doctors’ surprise, he had 54 magnetic balls stuck in his stomach and bowel.
The medical experts feared the magnets could burn through the boy’s tissue or vital organs and that he could even die as a result, so they immediately performed an operation on him and removed the magnets.
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Rhiley is now much better and is at home under the care of his mother.
Paige, from Prestwich, Greater Manchester, wanted to warn other parents to be careful, saying:
“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.”
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Even though he asked for the magnetic toys as a Christmas present, Rhiley eventually saved money and bought them on his own.
Post-operation complications caused Rhiley to spend 10 days hardly able to move without vomiting green liquid due to his leaking bowel. He was also unable to eat or use the toilet for a while.
Paige went on to say:
“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.
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“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.”
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