MILWAUKEE, WI (WTMJ/CNN) – A few pieces of plastic cost a 4-year-old part of his Christmas holiday and his health.
Beck White is now in children’s hospital. His mom said at first, she thought her son had the flu when he got very sick the day after Christmas.
“He started to vomit a very dark color. It looked like coffee grounds. At that point, I knew something was very wrong,” Jennifer White said through tears.
She and her husband rushed Beck to their local hospital in Appleton before he was sent to Children’s for surgery.
They said an x-ray showed Beck had swallowed the magnets inside of his toy.
“He had swallowed 13 of them. He snapped them right open and started to ingest them. And of course, we had no idea,” White recalled.
Once the magnet were inside him, White said they started to cut holes in his intestines.
“When he individually ingested them, they were doing what magnets do and trying to get to each other through his intestines. And it created holes in the lining, so they had to fix those,” White explained.
She said Beck is autistic, so they are usually very careful with his toys. But now she will not bring any toys with small magnets into their home.
“I really thought these were safe, absolutely thought he would be OK. If I had an inkling that this would have happened, I would have just got rid of them.”
Beck is expected to recover, but he will be in the hospital at least a few more days.
The American Academy of Pediatrics warns no high-powered magnets should be in homes with kids.