Now that the holidays are over, it’s likely that your child has gotten past the stage where they keep jumping from one toy to the next, and they now focus their attention on the one or two that they really like.
One mother is warning parents about the dangers of toys that contain magnets. She became alarmed when a few days after Christmas this year, her son started throwing up an odd-looking substance. She said it looked like coffee grounds.
She rushed him to the hospital, where doctors determined that he’d swallowed 13 magnets. He ended up having a portion of his appendix, colon and intestine removed. He is still battling an infection.
If you’re wondering how swallowing magnets could cause so much damage, it’s because they tend to become affixed to one another or to exert magnetic force within the body. That has the potential of tearing through your stomach or intestine’s lining. Once they penetrate this, an infection may develop. They’re not easily expelled from your body as waste.
Doctors say that magnets don’t just cause gastrointestinal injuries. They say that kids have suffered a perforated trachea or esophagus from swallowing magnets. Some have even damaged their septum or nostrils after sticking magnets up their nose and required reconstructive surgery.
The designer, manufacturer and marketer of an item can all be held liable for injuries that a person suffers from using it. Proving negligence in such cases isn’t easy. That’s why it’s important that you seek advice from an experienced attorney about how to pursue compensation for your child’s injuries.
