The boy who swallowed up to 100 potent drugs magnets purchased online have undergone major surgery to remove them.
After four days of abdominal pain, the 13-year-old boy was admitted to Tauranga Hospital. New Zealand North Island, where doctors discovered that magnets had linked together to form four chains inside his intestines.
Surgeons removed the magnets and removed parts of the boy's damaged intestine, according to a report from hospital doctors. Published Friday in the New Zealand Medical Journal.
Doctors said the boy, who was not named in the report, had swallowed “approximately 80-100 powerful 5x2mm neodymium magnets” in the week before hospitalization. He was discharged after eight days in hospital.
New Zealand banned the sale of small, powerful magnets in 2013 after the government warned children could be seriously injured if they swallowed magnets out of curiosity or while playing with them as “false decorations.”
“While these magnets are typically marketed to adults as office toys, and many brands carry strong safety warnings, it is clear from cases here and overseas that they pose too great a risk to children,” said Simon Bridges, then New Zealand's consumer affairs minister. in the statement at the time, citing previous hospitalizations of children in the US and Australia.
However, the authors of the New Zealand Medical Journal report note that enforcing the long-standing ban remains a challenge as magnets can still be easily purchased through online markets.
“While these laws can be enforced locally, it is more difficult to regulate products supplied by foreign merchants on large online marketplaces,” the authors say.
“These platforms are easily accessible, especially for children, purchases are inexpensive and do not always require age verification,” they added.
The report said the magnets were purchased through a Chinese online marketplace. Back. In a statement to NBC News, Temu said it could not yet confirm whether the magnets in question were purchased through its platform.
“We are sorry to learn of the reported incident and wish the boy a full and speedy recovery,” Temu officials said.
“We take product safety very seriously and continually monitor our platform to ensure that sellers comply with the safety regulations of the markets in which they do business,” they said.
The marketplace platform said it has contacted the New Zealand Medical Journal for more details on the case and its teams are reviewing relevant listings to ensure they comply with local safety standards, adding that any non-compliant products will be removed and sellers found to be violating platform rules or local laws will be subject to brought to harsh measures.
