4-Year-Old's Colon Parts, Intestines Removed After Swallowing Magnets From Toy

A 4-year-old Wisconsin boy had part of his colon and intestines removed after he swallowed magnets from a toy that were given to him as a Christmas present. The child is currently hospitalized after undergoing surgery.

Beck White became sick after Christmas and his mother thought that he had the flu. "He started to vomit a very dark color," mom Jennifer White told local media. "It looked like coffee grounds. At that point I knew something was very wrong."

As his condition worsened, Jennifer and her husband rushed him to a local hospital. Doctors said the X-ray report showed he had ingested magnets from his toy. Soon he was transferred to Children's Hospital in Milwaukee for surgery.

"He had swallowed 13 of them," Jennifer said. "He snapped them right open and started to ingest them. And of course we had no idea."

The magnets reportedly started to cut holes in his intestines. "When he individually ingested them, they were doing what magnets do and trying to get to each other through his intestines and it created holes in the lining, so they had to fix those," Jennifer said, adding: "I really thought these were safe... Absolutely thought he would be okay. If I had an inkling that this would have happen I would have just got rid of them."

Jennifer, whose son is autistic, warned other parents about the dangers of such toys.

“I don’t want another mother or father to go through this,” she told Fox 6 Now. “We had made sure that he was old enough, the age on the box, I chewed it myself. It sounds crazy but I have special needs children and sometimes you need to a little extra and I did those things to make sure… if you have them in your home make sure you know when they’re being played with, don’t let the kids have them by themselves.”

The child is expected to recover and will be released from the hospital after few days under observation.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, high-powered magnetic sets are risky and can cause injury and even death.

“When two or more magnets or one magnet and a piece of metal are swallowed, they can attract each other through the stomach, intestines and other organs. This can lead to injury or death unless removed by a surgeon,” the AAP writes. “A child who has swallowed magnets can have stomach pain, vomiting and fever. Parents should get medical help right away.”