Colorado toddler swallows 28 Buckyball magnets, parents say

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Surgeons remove 28 magnets from 2-year-old's bowel

Parents warn popular toy may be a magnet for disaster

A Colorado family is warning other parents about the dangers of Buckyballs after a 2-year-old girl swallowed 28 of the small magnets that sent her to the hospital.

Ella McBrien swallowed the small high-powered magnets when her father, Kyle McBrien, stepped away to use the bathroom. Her parents told FOX31 Denver on Sunday the girl likes to put things in her mouth.

"It was terrifying," girl’s mother, Elizabeth McBrien, said. "I was losing it, he luckily kept it together."

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The X-rays showed the magnets linked together to form a circle in the girl’s bowel. The magnets pinched a piece of the organ, forming a whole. The inital procedure to remove the BB-sized spheres failed, leading doctors to use a specialized endoscopy to remove them.

"They were pinching the bowel and causing the early formation of a hole within the bowel by the time we got in there," Dr. Robert Kramer, who was working on the 2-year-old’s case, told the news station. "That can have very significant implications. In the worst cases there has been deaths associated with these."

They successfully removed the magnetic balls and the toddler was moving around normally within a few hours after the procedure, according to FOX31.

A Colorado toddler was hospitalized after she swallowed 28 of the magnetic balls, her parents said on Sunday. (AP Photo/CPSC)

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Buckyballs have previously injured and sickened children. The items were initially recalled in 2013 after several cases of children swallowing them were reported. Courts reversed the U.S. Consumer and Product Safety Commision’s order in 2016.

"We are starting to see more of these high power magnet ingestions now that they are back on the market," Kramer said. 

Kyle McBrien said he’s telling his daughter’s health scare to warn other parents about the dangerous items.

"It sounds as benign as humanly possible -- magnets, you don’t think anything of it. I think just to understand exactly what the true risk is," McBrien said.