A 3-year-old girl named Berfin underwent a life-saving five-hour surgery in Istanbul after living for months with 66 magnetic beads lodged inside her stomach and intestines. The objects caused severe internal damage, including multiple perforations and adhesions, prompting doctors to urgently intervene.
Berfin, the third child of Mahmut and Ismigül Nesim, was first brought to a hospital last winter with complaints of nausea and vomiting. Initially, doctors believed her symptoms were due to a seasonal illness and treated her accordingly.
However, when the symptoms recurred recently, the family took her to the emergency department at Çam and Sakura City Hospital, where an X-ray revealed multiple foreign objects resembling beads in her digestive tract.
Doctors suspected magnetic beads, a dangerous toy increasingly involved in pediatric emergencies. Although Berfin was initially admitted for observation with the hope that the objects would pass naturally, follow-up examinations showed the beads remained lodged inside her digestive system.
Advanced imaging confirmed the objects were magnets, which posed a significant risk of causing organ perforations and adhesions.
A surgical team comprising pediatric surgeons and gastroenterologists performed a five-hour operation, successfully removing 66 magnetic beads. The surgery revealed three perforations in the stomach and two in the intestines, with organs stuck together due to the magnetic attraction of the beads – a condition that had likely developed over seven months.
The damaged areas were repaired using minimally invasive laparoscopic techniques.
Dr. Mehmet Çakmak, the pediatric surgeon leading the operation, highlighted the dangers of these magnetic toys. “Ingesting multiple magnets is an emergency because they can attract each other through intestinal walls, causing perforations and life-threatening adhesions. We see several cases like this each month, and these surgeries carry high risks,” he said.
Çakmak stressed the urgent need to ban the sale of magnetic beads as toys to prevent such incidents.
Berfin’s father shared his family’s ordeal and called for immediate regulatory action. “This is not a toy; it is a death trap. We bought these magnetic beads thinking they were harmless toys, but they nearly cost our daughter her life,” he said.
Incidents involving ingestion of magnetic beads have risen sharply in recent years, prompting health care professionals to warn parents about the severe health risks. These cases often go unnoticed until serious complications arise, making early detection and prevention crucial.
