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Mar 21, 2025

My baby needed surgery and a stoma bag after swallowing magnets

A baby girl was left fighting for her life last month, after swallowing six magnetic balls from a children’s toy that her mother had no idea her elder daughter had brought home from school.

A baby girl was left fighting for her life last month, after swallowing six magnetic balls from a children’s toy that her mother had no idea her elder daughter had brought home from school.

One-year-old Araya Whateley ended up needing seven hours of emergency surgery to have part of her bowel removed and now has a stoma bag.

The magnetic beads belonged to Araya’s nine-year-old sister Isla who had got them from a classmate during a game of 'school swapsie'. Her mum Hannah Whateley, from Overstone, Northants, had no idea they were there on the back seat of their car – or that her baby girl had put them in her mouth.

Hannah only realised something was seriously wrong when Araya began being violently sick. She rushed her to Northampton General Hospital where she was treated for gastroenteritis at first.

Araya was discharged but when she began choking in the hospital car park, her terrified mother rushed her back into A&E.

It was there that an X-ray revealed Araya had swallowed the balls which had clustered in her stomach and she was immediately transferred to Leicester Royal Infirmary for emergency surgery.

Speaking from her daughter’s bedside, Hannah is now calling for a ban on the sale of magnetic balls. "I don’t want anyone to go through this," says Hannah. "It is every parent’s worst nightmare. These awful things need to be banned immediately before any other children are hospitalised."

Of the moment, she discovered Araya had swallowed the balls, she says, "I was panicking. We were urgently transferred to Leicester Infirmary and she had surgery that morning. There were six magnets in total which were stuck together in a clump."

"The magnets have caused Araya’s intestine to close and it killed that part of her bowel,” she explains. "There was another hole that needed repairing on the other side of her intestine, which is attempting to be done using a stoma bag."

Even worse, at the time of interview the stoma bag wasn’t working. "Everything she is eating is coming out of her stoma and she is not taking anything in," adds Hannah. "Her output is higher than her input."

Hannah is still reeling from the moment she found out Araya had swallowed the magnets.

"I felt sick when I was told and guilty that I wasn’t aware," says Hannah. "It was a freak accident and my heart just broke for her – it’s still breaking.

"Eating causes a considerable amount of pain and I’m scared to feed her because I know she’s in extreme pain," adds Hannah.

According to the Child Accident Prevention Trust, magnets can cause life-threatening injuries if swallowed. They can join together and make holes in a child's gut, as they did with Araya, and removing the magnets can require complex surgery.

"These magnets can be found in toys, jewellery, fridge magnets or cheap products bought from online marketplaces," warns the Trust’s website. "They can be 10 times stronger than is safe."

Araya will need to keep the stoma bag for a few months and Hannah is clinging to the hope that the operation will be reversible.

Araya is due to have a total parenteral nutrition (TPN) line fitted – a catheter that will deliver nutrition into her bloodstream as she has not been able to eat anything due to the damage to her bowel.

"You don’t realise the damage magnetic sculpting balls are capable of," says Hannah.

"The doctor said Araya’s very lucky and he’s seen worst case scenarios over the past decade. It can cause catastrophic damage."

If you think your child has swallowed magnets, always dial 999 immediately. Bear in mind that symptoms can seem similar to a stomach bug or appendicitis.

Additional research: SWNS

Read more about child safety:

Baby was just 'minutes from death' after swallowing a button battery (Yahoo Life UK, 5-min read)

Why parents need to rethink road safety advice for kids in 2025 (Yahoo Life UK, 5-min read)

'My baby nearly died after not being vaccinated. The NHS figures are terrifying' (Yahoo Life UK, 5-min read)