Boy wakes up in agony with stomach pain after eating small magnetic beads

A X-ray has revealed the shocking thing a young boy swallowed that led to him needing urgent surgery.

A five-year-old boy was hospitalised after swallowing magnetic beads he mistook for lollies.

Emery, who resides in Adelaide, also has autism and a limited vocabulary, and he complained to his mum that his stomach hurt.

Thankfully, his mother Kirsty Nowak took his complaints seriously and took him to the hospital, where an X-ray revealed he’d eaten magnetic beads, which could have severely damaged the young boy’s organs.

Emery swallowed something that could have hurt him. Source: 7News

X-ray revealed the problem. Source: 7News

Ms Nowak told 7News: “(Doctors) had basically said that the balls had connected the top of his intestine to the bottom of his intestine, so it was actually squeezing the length of his intestine together.

“They were trying to eat through his intestine … and on the photos, you can already see they were already starting to burn through.”

The magnetic beads were so dangerous that Emery could have potentially lost the ability to go to the toilet.

“The worst-case scenario was they would have to remove his entire intestine and would give him (a) bag so he no longer could use the toilet. I was shocked and scared,” Ms Nowak explained.

Small high-powered magnetic toys have been banned in Australia since 2012 under federal law, such items can still be purchased online. They look relatively harmless plenty of parents are unaware of how dangerous they are.

Thankfully his Mum took him to the hospital. Source: 7News

Thankfully, doctors could operate and successfully remove most of the beads, bar one that will hopefully pass through his digestive system naturally to avoid more surgery.

Emery’s story comes after Frankie Davis, a young boy in New South Wales, swallowed 22 tiny magnetic balls in April in 2022.

Just like Emery, the balls were wreaking havoc in Frankie’s body and they were living in his bowels and intestines.

However, originally Frankie’s pain was mistaken for gastro and it wasn’t until his fourth hospital visit that Doctors decided to perform keyhole surgery to inspect the abdominal area, where they made the shocking magnetic discovery,

He had to undergo a three-hour surgery but ultimately made a full recovery.