Girl, 14, has part of intestines removed after swallowing magnets
Christin Rivas, 14, recently swallowed a pair of rare earth magnets and had part of her intestines removed
last weekend as a result. Christin Rivas, 14, was just playing around with her friends, doing tricks with
the rare-earth magnets she'd recently obtained from another pal. But she learned the hard way that the
magnets she thought of as a toy were no joke.
Rivas, of Melbourne, Fla., accidentally swallowed some of the magnets — and five days later landed in
the hospital, where surgeons cut open her small intestine to remove the magnets as well as her appendix
and a small section of her colon, The Orlando Sentinel reported . Rivas is doing fine after the incident,
which happened last week before Thanksgiving, but doctors warn that magnets and other products that
contain them can pose a serious hazard when swallowed.
"Kids swallow a lot of objects," Dr. Tejas Mehta, the pediatric gastroenterologist who treated Rivas, told
The Sentinel . "But from a GI perspective, magnets cause more damage than anything else." The force of
the magnets can block and twist the intestines, causing serious internal damage, Mehta explained. Four
out of five kids who swallow multiple magnets will need an invasive procedure.
In Rivas' case, she popped the magnets in her mouth momentarily while in the bathroom at her middle
school — and before she knew it, she had swallowed them.
"I do feel it was one of those stupid kid moments," she told ABCNews.com . "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."
Buckyballs, a high-powered desktop magnetic toy, can prove irresistible to kids and teens who may stick
them in their mouths or up their noses and accidentally ingest them.
The magnets she swallowed were made of neodymium, a "soft, silvery" element that breaks down when it
mixes with stomach acid, ABC reported . Magnet toys like Buckyballs, a set of stackable magnetic beads,
are alluring to both young children and tweens, who like to play with them and use them as pretend
jewelry, experts told The Sentinel . Often children will pop them in their mouths or stick them up their
noses, and the balls become stuck or are swallowed.
Emergency room doctors at first told Rivas' mother, Barbara, to return home and wait for the magnets to
pass from Christin's body. But the skeptical mom called the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
which advised her to get a second opinion.
Doctors at Arnold Palmer Hospital admitted Christin to the hospital for observation and went in to
operate after the magnets became stalled between her small intestine and colon, rendering the situation
"life threatening," Mehta told ABC . Christin now wants to warn other kids and parents against buying the
magnets.
"Don't even think about touching them or buying them," she told The Sentinel. "I messed up my
intestines. I worry about that down the road."
Analysis Questions: Answer the questions below.
1. What is the purpose of the digestive system?
2. What do you think would be the effect on the digestive system of removing sections of the
intestines?
3. What other organ systems might be affected by changes in the digestive tract?
4. What kinds of food make for a healthy diet? Make sure to use evidence and reasoning to
backup your claim.
5. What are some questions you could ask to toy companies to ensure safer toys for children?