Surgeons at the Children's City Hospital in Nizhnekamsk (Tatarstan) operated on a four-year-old boy who swallowed 15 magnetic balls. The boy's family came to visit Nizhnekamsk from Moscow. It so happened that the kid got to the magnetic constructor, the details of which form various shapes due to strong adhesion to each other. The child, due to his age, could not know how to use the constructor for its intended purpose. He decided to taste the beautiful balls and swallowed them for two days. “Once inside the gastrointestinal tract, in different parts of it, the balls were attracted to each other and firmly adhered, holding together the walls of the stomach, small and large intestines. From this squeezing, the small intestine was perforated, a little more and peritonitis would begin. Local surgeons performed a complex operation. They opened the stomach, small and large intestines, removed all 15 balls through a small 4-centimeter access,”the website of the Ministry of Health of Tatarstan reports. It must be said that such Chinese-made constructors appeared in our sale about five years ago, and at the same time a wave of little "swallowers" began. The mass media published a lot of materials on this topic. It was even proposed at the legislative level to prohibit the sale of such toys, since the consequences were very serious. “Children do not say that they have eaten the magnets. Parents go to the doctor only when the child has an acute inflammation, and its cause is clarified after an X-ray is taken. In recent years, this topic seems to have calmed down, and now we are again faced with such a case. The boy ate 15 balls. They in his stomach were soldered into a ring, clamping three sections of the gastrointestinal tract between them. It's good that we got there on time,”said Aleksey Spiridonov, children's surgeon, head of the surgical department of the 1st Nizhnekamsk Children's City Hospital with a perinatal center. He said that now the little patient is not in danger, and he is on the mend. Doctors note that round watch batteries and coins are among the most common items that children most often swallow. In principle, any object that a child likes can end up in his mouth. If the baby is interested in something beautiful, shiny, unusual for him, then, most likely, he will pull it into his mouth and swallow it. Bolts, screws, paper clips, buttons and other stationery for older family members also often end up inside the child. It happens that small children gnaw mercury thermometers and swallow balls of mercury. Nothing terrible, according to doctors, will not happen in this case. Vapors of mercury are dangerous, and mercury itself, like a heavy metal, will not be absorbed into the blood, but simply leave the body. As well as pieces of glass. Most likely, they will pass out of the body without any health consequences. But, doctors warn that anything can happen: someone swallows a nail - and nothing, and someone will get on the operating table. What, after all, should be done if the baby swallowed a foreign object in front of his mother's eyes and began to choke? Experts advise: if the child is small, you can put him on your thigh so that his head tilts to the floor, lightly tap on the back. An infant - up to one year old, you can put on the forearm, so that the head also hangs down a little, and pat on the back. There are two outcomes: either a foreign object will jump out, or it will fall further into the bronchus. But if any nut is stuck somewhere in the vocal cords, only a surgeon can help.
