Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor:  Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report   

Video Credit: AsiaWire

This is the moment a doctor removes a string of buckyballs from a toddler’s digestive tract after he accidentally swallowed 19 of the magnetic toys in one go.

The cluster of small metal balls clung to his intestines, causing intense pain, and threaten to rupture his bowels if not removed immediately, his doctor said.

The three-year-old from the city of Zoucheng, in East China’s Shandong Province, reportedly ate the buckyballs on 1st December and complained of a tummy ache soon after.

His mum, Ms He, told local media: “His stomach hurt at night and he couldn’t eat anything the next morning.

“He’d throw everything up, whether it be water or food. I thought he had food poisoning, but no treatment worked.”

She took her tot to Zoucheng People’s Hospital, where he was seen by paediatric surgeon Hou Su.

Doctor Hou recalled: “I asked the mother to consider the possibility that her son had swallowed something.

“I examined his stomach and could vaguely feel something under his upper right abdomen, so I ordered an X-ray.

“Scans showed a bracelet-like string of beads in his stomach.”

Ms He told her son’s doctor she recognised the shapes as that of her son’s buckyballs, which have become increasingly popular in recent years due to their ability to be built into various structures.

Doctor Hou continued: “We waited to see whether the boy could pass the magnetic balls with an enema, but they failed to move.

“We suspected the the magnetic balls were clamped on a section of his intestines, so it was important that we performed surgery quickly in order to prevent perforation and possible necrosis.”

Footage from the facility shows Doctor Hou retrieving the string of magnets, which he said had already been cutting blood supply to the boy’s small intestine.

He added: “Scans showed 19 magnetic balls, and that’s the same number we retrieved in surgery.”

Ms He’s toddler is recovering at the hospital and not expected to suffer any long-term effects from the injury.

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