Two-year-old child operated after swallowing 200 magnetic beads

A two-year-old Russian boy recently had to undergo surgery to remove 209 small magnetic beads from his stomach. It was his parents who realized that the child had a problem, after noticing that his stools were very dark, a sign of bleeding. Medical examinations quickly uncovered the problem, reports Newsweek.

The operation was delicate. The medical team feared that the beads would stick together and lead to perforations, especially in the esophagus or stomach. Two hours were needed to remove the beads four by four and thus complete this intervention, performed endoscopically.

Superpowers

Several such incidents had already taken place in Russia in recent months. A three-year-old swallowed thirty such marbles in January and a nine-year-old girl ingested twelve while shooting a TikTok video.

Another similar case erupted a few months ago in the UK when a 12-year-old boy with autism voluntarily swallowed 54 magnets. As the Daily Mail, he thus intended to become magnetic and believed to be able to attract metallic objects.