cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/45088835
A 13-year-old boy in New Zealand swallowed up to 100 high-power magnets he bought on Temu, forcing surgeons to remove tissue from his intestines, doctors said on Oct 24.
After suffering four days of abdominal pain, the unnamed teen was taken to Tauranga Hospital on the North Island.
“He disclosed ingesting approximately 80 to 100 5x2mm high-power (neodymium) magnets about one week prior,” said a report by hospital doctors in the New Zealand Medical Journal.
The magnets, which have been banned in New Zealand since January 2013, were bought on online shopping platform Temu, they said.
An X-ray showed the magnets had clumped together in four straight lines inside the child’s intestines.
“These appeared to be in separate parts of bowel adhered together due to magnetic forces,” they said.
[…]
Surgeons operated to remove the dead tissue and retrieve the magnets, and the child was able to return home after an eight-day spell in hospital.
“This case highlights not only the dangers of magnet ingestion but also the dangers of the online marketplace for our paediatric population,” said the authors of the paper, Dr Binura Lekamalage, Dr Lucinda Duncan-Were and Dr Nicola Davis.
Surgery for ingestion of magnets can lead to complications later in life such as bowel obstruction, abdominal hernia and chronic pain, they said.
[…]
Not gonna lie, banning 5x2mm magnets is insane. They’re very useful, I’ve seen countless DIY projects or 3D print models that use them and in general they’re just handy. It seems insane to me to ban them for such a reason. There are infinite ways in which children can hurt themselves, should we ban stoves because they can get hot? That ban sounds a bit too much to me.
Exactly. I never heard of a magnet ban in my life.
But how do they work?
I am almost afraid to ask… but why eat magnets?
It could be a desperate suicide attempt. The magnets get trapped in the bowels by sticking together at various points, necrotizing or rupturing the intestines or other tissues, which can cause peritonitis or ultimately sepsis, which can be fatal.
That is such a slow and painful and unsure way to commit suicide though…
Agreed. A few of my physician/nursing friends mentioned that they see these kinds of injuries on rare occasions and have always been attributed to patients in serious mental/emotional distress, so this level of desperation is unfortunately still out there.
How else is he going to get out all the metal shards he ate?! It’s like if a bird gets stuck in the wall and you use a cat to get the bird out!
What are you smoking and can I have some, please?
I think the kid might’ve been avoiding hardware disease
They do that by feeding cows magnets.
(no but seriously 100 small magnets on purpose is something else)
This is fucking stupid. A 13 year old is old enough to read the “don’t fucking eat this you dumbass” labels on the packaging. Do you know how useful neodymium magnets are? You’re gonna just ban them cuz this kid’s dumb enough to swallow a hundred fucking rare earth magnets and didn’t go to the doctor for half a week? Stupid
Next they’re going to ban CR2032 button cells
(I was gonna put a /s at the end but I can vividly imagine that happening now :/ )
In Australia CR2032s have a double wall thick plastic blister packaging that is basically impossible to open.
You need scissors AND some time.
Same in the US, apparently. I bought some to replace my car key remote battery. Guess what I don’t have in my car? Any kind of scissors.
Not to harp on you but one of those old school keychain Swiss Army knives should be on your key ring
And they laugh at the USA because Kinder eggs with toys in them are banned.
They’re laughing at USA for other reasons, mate.
Well sure, but we’re also laughing about the kinder egg thing.
