Mom Insists on X-Ray for Screaming Toddler After Docs Diagnose Him with a Stomach Bug. He Had Swallowed a Button Battery
Dunn pushed for an X-ray, which showed that Kai had swallowed a button battery that was burning his throat
He underwent life-saving surgery and Dunn is urging parents to make sure batteries are secured in children's toysA Texas toddler nearly died after doctors misdiagnosed his stomach pains as a virus — missing the fact that the boy had swallowed a button battery which had gotten stuck on his throat.
Madeline Dunn says that one of her 18-month-old twins, Kai, woke up at 11 pm screaming in agony. 'Me and his dad were passing him back and forth between each other and we made the decision to bring him to the hospital because he was also drooling really bad,' Dunn, 26, tells Daily Mail, adding that when she drove Kai to the emergency room, he cried the entire ride.
When they arrived, Dunn says doctors insisted that Kai simply had a bad stomach virus — but Dunn wasn't convinced. She shared that she's always had a phobia of her young twins 'swallowing something they're not supposed to,' which prompted her to request an X-ray of her young son. Doctors placated her, she said: 'They said they could do one to make me feel better.'
That scan is what saved Kai's life.
'When we were walking back to the room there was already a team of doctors waiting in the room with him and they had the X-ray pulled up which showed the button battery in his throat. They were saying he'd swallowed a button [battery]; It's code red. They started shoving honey down his throat and getting him prepared to rush him into surgery,' she explains. 'I didn't know that he'd swallowed a button battery but something in my gut told me to have that X-ray done.'
Button batteries are small, circular batteries that are often used in watches, remote controls — and children's toys. When swallowed, they can get stuck in the throat, which is what happened with Kai. As the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) explains, 'the saliva triggers an electric current which causes a chemical reaction that can severely burn the esophagus in as little as two hours, creating an esophageal perforation, vocal cord paralysis, or even erosion into the airway (trachea), or major blood vessels.'
There are more than 3,500 annual cases of button battery ingestion in the US, and the numbers, CHOP says, are rising.
'The doctors told me when they were bringing him back from surgery that I saved my baby's life by doing that,' she added. Kai underwent surgery, but was left with a hole that had been burned in his esophagus, and needed a feeding tube while he healed.
'I kept asking them if they knew if my baby was going to live or not, and they told me that they couldn't say because of the hole,' Dunn says. 'If he caught an infection, it could have spread to areas outside of the esophagus.'
Fortunately, the hole in his throat did close, and Kai was able to go home. However, his ordeal is far from over; due to the buildup of scar tissue, his esophagus is tight.
'They go in every week, put him under [anesthetic] and they stretch the esophagus out with a balloon,' Dunn explained. And while he was finally able to have his feeding tube removed, Kai is 'still looking at eight to 10 procedures.'
Although 'I have no idea where [the battery] came from,' Dunn shared that after she checked his toys, she learned 'the majority of his toddler toys have button batteries in them.'
She urged other parents to ensure that 'if toys do have button batteries in them that they're secure and the back on them is tight.'
'Every single day I just keep thinking that we got lucky.'
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