Hard to Swallow

We've just spent 18 hours in the E.R. Last Sunday, Stockton's primary teacher pulled me aside during class and told me there was a problem. She then held out her hand and showed me these tiny magnets. They were cylindrical, about a quarter inch in length and had the circumference of a fork prong. Stockton had swallowed a bunch of them. Apparently he was playing with them in class and after awhile the teachers couldn't find them all. They asked Stockton if he had swallowed them and he said he had. They guessed that he had probably swallowed 8-10 judging by how many they could find. The teacher felt absolutely sick with worry and felt so badly that this happened. I looked at the magnets and thought there is no way that these could cause damage. The magnets are far too small and surely they'll just pass through. I tried to reassure the teacher and told her I'd call the pediatrician when I got home.

Well, I forgot. Stockton seemed absolutely fine and since I wasn't too worried about it, calling the pediatrician on a Sunday wasn't a priority. The next day, around dinnertime, Stockton's primary teacher called to check up on him. She left a message and was still very concerned. At that point I thought I better call the pediatrician. I was so surprised that my pediatrician told me to get Stockton up to Primary's Children Hospital immediately. She said that the magnets might not stick together initially but that if they eventually stuck together on the opposite sides of a bowel, that could lead to all sorts of serious problems. I asked if I could go to an instacare or a closer E.R. but she said that they would probably send me up to Primary's anyway.

Clark and Stockton headed up to the hospital around 7:00 that evening. Stockton got an x-ray and it turned out that all the magnets Stockton swallowed had connected. It looked like there was a pencil in his stomach. The x-ray guy said they'd want to get the magnets out that night but the G.I. specialist thought it should pass. Since they weren't sharp they shouldn't cause any damage so Stockton and Clark got home around 9:45 with Miralax and Exlax. Around 10:00, the G.I. doctor called and asked if we could come back to the hospital. I guess under further review it was decided that they were going to need to get the magnets out right away. The problem we had at that point was that we had given Stockton a bedtime snack and they couldn't do the procedure on a full stomach.

Stockton and Clark had a restless night up at the hospital, partly because they had given Stockton an IV around midnight. They x-rayed Stockton the next morning around 6:00 and the magnets were lower but still in the stomach. The plan was to use a scope down the throat to extract the magnets but if the magnets had moved into the small intestines, they would have to operate. They put Stockton under a general anesthetic, regardless.

Stockton was very brave going into surgery. The anesthesiologist asked if Stockton would need something to calm him down but Stockton was just fine. He said to Clark and me, "I'll go and get the magnets out and then you can come get me."

The procedure went great! There were able to use the scope but the doctor said that a couple of the magnets had started to enter the intestines, so we cut things kind of close. Stockton was pretty content when he woke up. Very tired, but happy. It turns out that he swallowed 16 magnets!

Stockton's X-ray:

On his way to surgery:

The extracted magnets:This gives a perspective of how tiny the magnets are:The connected magnets: