One-year-old girl wakes from coma after swallowing deadly button battery

“This all could have been prevented if she was x-rayed straight away, the damage that's been done is because of the neglect." 

The parents of a one-year-old girl who swallowed a deadly object have issued a desperate warning to other families.

One-year-old Amity Buchanan was rushed to Mackay Base Hospital earlier this week after she began vomiting and choking out of the blue.

"You could just hear in her voice. It wasn't a normal spew. She was in agony," Amity’s dad, Daniel Buchanan, told ABC News.

After hearing a whistling noise, Daniel and his partner, Jemma Gultzow, thought their one-year-old may have swallowed a little polystyrene bean but weren’t sure.

However, they said their concerns were completely dismissed by the hospital because “they were busy”.

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Amity had to be placed in an induced coma. Source: Daniel Buchanan

'Our baby woke up in agony' 

After being checked with a stethoscope, Amity was sent home. But her condition worsened overnight. 

“She woke up in agony, my poor darling,” Daniel told Courier Mail.

“The next day she was feeling lethargic and I knew something was up and she wasn’t her usual self.”

Beside themselves with worry, Amity’s parents rushed her to a doctor who insisted she be taken back to the emergency department for scans.

“We kept having to fight and fight for her to have any type of X-ray or care,” Jemma told 7News.

When Amity was finally seen to, X-rays revealed she had a round button battery lodged in her oesophagus. 

RELATED: Mum pulls two button batteries out of baby’s mouth

An x-ray showed a button battery lodged in the one-year-old's throat. Source: supplied

Button battery lodged in one-year-old's throat for 28 hours 

But the family say they were then sent back to the waiting room for another agonising 45 minutes. 

"They should have taken action straight away. You don't need to be a medical person to understand — everyone knows how harmful [button batteries] are for you," Daniel added. 

She was eventually airlifted to Townsville for emergency surgery and placed in an induced coma for two days.

Due to the delayed discovery, the battery had been lodged for at least 28 hours and caused an 8cm burn in Amity’s throat.

RELATED: Toddler dies after swallowing button battery

The one-year-old was placed in an induced coma. Source: supplied

One-year-old now out of a coma 

Incredibly, the one-year-old has now woken up and is breathing on her own.

However only time will tell what lasting effects the button battery has had on Amity as she continues to recover in hospital.

“She will be unable to eat for the next 4-6 weeks. Biggest risk is infection so the hospital is doing all necessary precautions for our little girl,' Daniel wrote on GoFundMe.

“This all could have been prevented if she was X-Rayed straight away, the damage that's been done and what she is going through at the moment is because of the neglect and it being in there so long.”

Amity’s parents revealed they have since found an open car key fob in a draw in their walk-in wardrobe.

"It wasn't lying around," Daniel said.

"They key was shut but somehow it must have been loose or something and she's managed to get it open."

The button battery was lodged in Amity's throat for "at least 28 hours". Source: supplied

Mackay Base Hospital reviewing Amity's case

Mackay Base Hospital chief operations officer Sharon Walsh says the health service is reviewing Amity’s case.

"Information provided to the hospital was that a polystyrene bean had been swallowed and this would not have shown up in an X-ray," she told ABC News. 

"We do not routinely perform medical imaging on children who have swallowed a radiotransparent foreign body if their clinical presentation is normal.

"As always, we ask patients to re-present if they develop new symptoms or their condition deteriorates."

There are now calls for even tighter restrictions on button batteries after new standards introduced in 2022 made it mandatory for items containing button batteries to have secure compartments.

Originally published as One-year-old girl wakes from coma after swallowing deadly button battery