Teenage Girl Swallows Powerful Earth Magnets And Survives Because Of Mother's Google Search
BySometimes, Google knows more than your local emergency room. That was the case for 14 year-old Christin Rivas and her mom, Barbara, who read that swallowing rare earth magnets, as her daughter did several hours before, could cause death -- even though doctors advised her to wait until its pass, ABC News reported.
Mrs. Rivas called the Center for Disease Control, which suggested she take Christin for a second opinion. Eventually, the middle school girl was sent to the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, where surgeons cut open her small intestine and removed the powerful magnets, according to ABC News.
Rare earth magnets bear from rare, naturally found elements and are exceptionally powerful. Swallowing any type of magnet, especially ones as strong as earth magnets, can compromise the digestive system by causing certain sections to stick, leading to all sorts of complications, according to ABC News. If two or more are swallowed, as was the case with Christin, and they separate, the potential for harm increases significantly ("a 60 percent morbidity rate," according to Christin) should the two magnets reconnect and manipulate the digestive tract in unnatural ways.
Christin's ordeal started as an innocent trick to impress her friends. She'd used a few of the powerful magnets (about the size of the pea and typically used in computer chips and car bearings) she'd gotten from church to attract pens through the wall of the adjoining classroom. Then, her story maybe starts to break down.
When she went to the bathroom, she said she inexplicably placed them in her mouth rather than on the floor (or in her pockets or not in her mouth), and swallowed two of them after a comment from another classmate made her laugh, ABC News reported.
"I do feel it was one of those stupid kid moments," said Christin. "I was going to the bathroom and I put them in my mouth because I didn't want to put them on the floor. I wasn't quite thinking. The kid on the other side said something that made me laugh and swallow them."
Christin attempted to throw up but she couldn't. School officials sent her home, and, several days later, doctors were opening up her small intestine, ABC News reported.
"She came in overnight feeling fine, and in the morning when we repeated her X-ray we saw what looked like two round magnets and they had passed into the stomach," said Dr. Tejas Mehta, her gastroenterologist.
Christin recovered fully and is back in school. The two magnets sit in a jar at her Melboure, FL home, ABC News reported.
"They are very dangerous unless they are used for the right things," said Christin. "I wanted to make people more aware of this before Christmas when younger children can get ahold of the stuff. There is a 60 percent morbidity. A little kid wouldn't survive."