In a now-viral tweet, one doctor reminds parents that putting batteries out of reach of children can mean the difference between life and death.
Over the weekend, Dutch pediatric gastroenterologist Lissy de Ridder shared an X-ray showing a disc battery lodged in a baby's esophagus. In her tweet, de Ridder revealed that she had removed three disc batteries from young patients in one week alone.
"Damage is severe and lifelong in one of them," she wrote. "Truly individual and societal disaster. Parents, be warned!"
De Ridder's tweet has made some people rally together to raise awareness.
According to the National Capital Poison Center, if swallowed, not only can batteries get lodged in a child's esophagus, but can also burn a hole through the tissue in just two hours. This can lead to surgery and/or life-threatening complications. In some cases, swallowing disc batteries can also be fatal.
As a result, U.K. surgeon Kate Cross told BBC News, "Button batteries should be treated like poison and kept out of reach of children."
Stories of children swallowing batteries are nothing new, and Safe Kids reports that more than 2,800 U.S. kids are rushed to emergency each year as a result.
The most well-known case was in 2010 and involved an Arizona boy named Emmett Rauch. At not even a year old, Rauch swallowed a disc battery, which burned his esophagus and paralyzed his vocal cords.
Although the youngster's esophagus was rebuilt using part of his rib, he still had to use a tracheal tube to breathe. However, after undergoing a total of 65 surgeries, Rauch was finally able to breathe on his own five years after the incident, and his tracheal tube was removed in 2015.
Stories like Rauch's and tweets like de Ridder's are important reminders of how dangerous disc batteries can be.
On Twitter, users thanked de Ridder for her eye-opening warning.
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