Amity Buchanan in hospital after swallowing button battery

A one-year-old girl who swallowed a button battery has made some progress, with her breathing tube removed, as her family play a waiting game.

Amity Buchanan is in hospital after swallowing a battery. Picture: Supplied

A one-year-old Queensland girl who was placed in an induced coma after swallowing a button battery has had a positive step in her road to recovery, but her father is still saying the horror incident could have been avoided if her daughter had gotten an X-ray.

Daniel Buchanan called an ambulance after he was worried his daughter Amity had swallowed something on Monday afternoon – at the time they saw her with a polystyrene bean but weren’t certain what it was.

“She just started spewing everywhere, so we took her straight to Mackay Hospital,” he said.

“She was choking at the same time. She went in the ambulance and they took her up to the hospital.

“The doctor checked her with a stethoscope and they said it was OK.”

Amity Buchanan is in hospital after swallowing a battery. Picture: Supplied

Mr Buchanan said they left the hospital thinking it could have been a stomach bug.

“She woke up in agony, my poor darling,” he said.

“She slept that night with a battery lodge through her throat, she could have died.

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

That day after a doctor saw her and demanded she go straight to the emergency room.

An X-ray was finally done and the battery was found. Amity was taken to Townsville Hospital for a two-hour operation to remove the battery.

Amity Buchanan is in hospital after swallowing a battery.

Mr Buchanan said his daughter was having the surgery as he drove to the hospital – making it feel like the longest drive he had ever endured.

“I had to drive four hours up to Townsville, no one was telling me if she was going to be OK, so I was losing it,” he said.

“For me to drive four hours and get there at midnight, I’m sitting there driving with my father and she’s in surgery. It was the scariest thing I have ever felt in my life.”

Mr Buchanan said all the agony could have been avoided if Mackay Hospital had done more tests.

“She wouldn’t be in the state she’s in at the moment if she had just gotten an X-ray,” he said.

“It’s breaking my heart.”

But in the latest update on Thursday evening, Mr Buchanan said her doctors seemed confident things would be OK.

“They sat us down and had a talk to us; at the moment it’s still a waiting game,” he said.

“She’s looking a bit better, she got the breathing tube out so she’s breathing on her own, and she’s not in the induced coma.

“Just seeing her without the breathing tube, its lightened us up a lot.”

A battery was found in one-year old Amity.

Mr Buchanan said he was hopeful she would wake up in a few hours.

“We are a bit happier at the moment but the stress is still there,” he said.

He said there was a long road ahead, expecting to be at the hospital for at least four to six weeks, with more tests expected.

“I am pretty sure in a week’s time they want to give her throat as big of a rest as possible,” he said.

“They were talking about putting some food dye down her throat to see if it leaks.”

Mackay Hospital chief operations officer Sharon Walsh said the health service was reviewing Amity’s presentation at the hospital.

“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 said.

“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.”

Amity Buchanan is in hospital after swallowing a battery.

This incident comes after new safety measures were introduced to corporations and individuals who supply products with button batteries, with major fines in place.

Under the new standards products must have secure battery compartments to prevent children accessing the batteries, and they must be supplied in child-resistant packaging.

A GoFundMe campaign has been created for Amity, with more than $8000 raised.

Mr Buchanan said he has been grateful of the community support through this tough time.

“People have been saying prayers, people from Brisbane are offering to help, some other people are 45 minutes away and offering to drop off food,” he said.

Originally published as Amity Buchanan in hospital after swallowing button battery