These images show 32 metal beads that a doctor spotted by chance inside a two-year-old boy’s tummy after his parents took his sibling to hospital over an upset stomach and a checkup was also performed on the boy, who had a cough.

A doctor at the hospital said that the magnetic properties of the beads could have led to them puncturing his intestines if they had not been caught in time, which can lead to serious injury or death.

The doctor, who has been named as Dr Li Liming, deputy chief physician of the Second Department of General Surgery, Hunan Children’s Hospital, in Changsha, which is the capital city of central China’s Hunan Province, said that the family was surprised to discover that the boy had swallowed the 32 metal beads when they took him to the hospital recently along with his brother.

It was originally because of his brother’s upset tummy that his parents had taken them both to the hospital and while there, it was noted that the sibling was coughing so they did a check up on him too.

The young boy, who has not been named, was lucky to escape unharmed, the doctor said, adding that after he had attended to the first brother, who was the reason the children’s parents had gone to hospital in the first place, he noted that the second brother was coughing.

He said: “In the beginning, the child had a cough. Because he was not feeling well, we took him for a check up.”

The boy’s mother, who has not been named, said that because her child originally had no obvious symptoms of discomfort, they were not initially alarmed.

But an examination performed at the hospital revealed the large number of beads in his stomach area. Dr Li Liming said: “The X-ray film can see a string of white shadows in the abdominal cavity, which looks like a bracelet. We found that they were in fact magnetic bead.”

The boy underwent an unspecified operation and the beads were removed.

The doctor said that a follow-up inspection showed that the magnetic beads that Xiaoming had accidentally ingested had been successfully removed.

Dr Li Liming said that if the magnetic beads had remained in the child’s body for too long, the consequences would have been very serious: “Magnetic beads are very dangerous after accidental ingestion. Mutual attraction may cause intestinal perforation.

“If the child has symptoms such as abdominal pain, be sure to seek medical attention in time.”