NZ Surgeons Pull Out Up To 100 High-Powered Magnets From 13-Yo Boy's Bowel After He Mistakenly Swallowed Them

In a shocking incident from New Zealand, a 13-year-old boy had to undergo a tricky surgery after he swallowed dozens of highly powered magnets purchased from an e-commerce marketplace on the Internet. Doctors had to remove a portion of his intestine to recover all the magnets.

The disturbing event came even after the country had prohibited the selling of small, powerful magnets for domestic or personal use since 2014, when the child swallowed up to 100 of them that he had ordered from Temu, a popular online marketplace.

Surgeons at the Tauranga Hospital wrote in the New Zealand Medical Journal that the teen boy swallowed around 80 to 100 small magnets a week before the surgery. He had purchased them on Temu.

New Zealand Medical Journal wrote, "We present the case of a 13-year-old boy admitted to hospital with four days of generalized abdominal pain."

"He disclosed ingesting approximately 80–100 5x2mm high-power (neodymium) magnets about one week prior, which were purchased from an overseas online marketplace (Temu)."

Although the selling of these magnets for domestic or personal use is prohibited by New Zealand law, educational institutions are still permitted to utilize them for instructional purposes or in other products. These magnets have been promoted as kid-friendly toys and come in sets that can be used as fidget toys or to create various shapes.

Professor Alex Sims from the University of Auckland said, "Unfortunately, they often come as brightly coloured small balls, making them attractive for children to swallow. Indeed, small high-power magnets are so dangerous that they are banned for sale in certain situations in both Australia and New Zealand."

The instance was deemed "alarming" by surgeons since it was difficult to enforce the restriction, as children could obtain the magnets at a low cost through online markets.