A 12-year-old U.K. boy was reportedly hospitalized after he purposefully swallowed 54 toy magnets in an experiment to see if he could become magnetic. Rhiley Morrison of Prestwich, Greater Manchester was also reportedly interested in seeing what the objects would look like after passing them. When they did not appear after four days, he told his mother about the situation, and he was rushed to the hospital. His life was saved after a six-hour operation.
Rhiley first told his mother, Paige Ward, he swallowed two balls “by accident,” The Daily Mail reported on Monday. She took him to the hospital, where doctors discovered he actually had 54 magnetic balls in his stomach and bowel. They first feared the toys would burn through tissue and organs, which could have killed him. He was rushed into surgery and was hospitalized for 16 days. He is now home recovering.
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Ward, 30, shared the story in the hopes that other parents will be vigilant when their children play with magnetic ball toys. She hopes they will be banned before an incident like this happens again. “I was gobsmacked, just speechless when I heard the number he’d swallowed,” she told the Daily Mail. “The doctors guessed around 25- 30 from the x-ray, but when he came out of surgery they said they got 54.” Ward was confused about why her son swallowed the toys, but he eventually admitted it was part of an experiment.
“Rhiley is massively into science, he loves experiments, he eventually admitted, ‘I tried to stick magnets to me, I wanted to see if this copper would stick to my belly while the magnets were in,’” Ward told the Daily Mail. “It’s just so silly, but he’s a child and that’s what kids do. He also thought it would be fun seeing them come out the other end.”
Rhiley, who is autistic and was diagnosed with ADHD, received the first batch of magnet toys for Christmas and bought a second batch with money he saved up. He swallowed the balls on Jan. 1 and Jan. 4. He thought the balls would eventually come out during a trip to the bathroom, but that never happened. He told his mom about it on Jan. 5 and she took him to the hospital. After the emergency surgery, Rhiley could not move for 10 days, or he would vomit a green liquid caused by bowel leakage. He needed to be fed by tube and had a catheter inserted. Ward said it was “heartbreaking” and “just horrible” to watch. Rhiley was finally discharged from the hospital on Jan. 21. One doctor told Ward that if Rhiley did not tell her about the magnets when he did, he could have died.
“I don’t want other kids or parents going through that,” Ward, who has three younger children, told the Daily Mail. “When he did it I thought it was just him, he’s just been silly and done it, but the surgeon said they see this all the time. Magnets aren’t toys, they shouldn’t be sold as toys. My message to other parents is to just put them in the bin, don’t buy them in the first place. I don’t care how nice they look and how many children ask for them because they’re ‘cool,’ they’re just not worth it.”
