When one-year-old Keith Karre swallowed a small battery, his family’s world turned upside down.
Keith was playing with a toy phone in his living room with his brother in January when he suddenly pulled the battery out of the phone and put it in his mouth.
His mother, Katie Woodside, described it as “the worst thing that has ever happened to me.”
She and her husband, Nick Karre, struggled to remove the small button-shaped object from their baby’s throat, but he was turning blue, foaming at the mouth and coughing up blood.
An ambulance rushed them to the hospital, where doctors confirmed that the baby had swallowed a button battery, a small, flat circular object.
Ms Woodside, a New York hairdresser, said: “When these batteries get wet, they have a chemical reaction and bubble.” They eat through the skin and that’s why they ate his throat.
‘He fainted from the pain. “It was absolutely terrible.”
Doctors performed a 90-minute surgery to remove the button and Keith had to recover in the intensive care unit for two weeks.
Keith Karre now has scars on his esophagus and is expected to have lifelong problems.
Doctors performed a 90-minute surgery to remove the button and Keith recovered in intensive care for two weeks.
Woodside added: “He was in a lot of pain. He was crying and he was covered in tubes so I couldn’t even pick him up and hold him.”
Button batteries like the one Keith ingested contain a mixture of corrosive chemicals.
Alkaline batteries contain potassium hydroxide or sodium hydroxide, which can create a chemical reaction if swallowed.
This can quickly damage tissue and cause severe burns in a short time.
Lithium batteries are very reactive to moisture – such as saliva – and can produce heat, causing burns.
Keith now has scarring on his esophagus and is expected to have lifelong problems eating and swallowing.
As of now, Keith only eats pureed foods and is completely unable to swallow solids.
His parents also invested in a device that can suck food out of his throat in case something gets stuck there.
Button batteries are small enough for children to pick up, swallow, and choke on. Keith pulled it out of a toy phone and put it in his mouth.
Mrs Woodside said: “The children usually recover quite well, but he chokes on everything.”
About 2,500 American children swallow button batteries or put them in their ears or nose each year, and a chemical reaction typically occurs within 15 minutes.
Swallowing these batteries can be fatal because they can cause severe chemical burns to the esophagus, which can cause holes there and in surrounding organs, such as the windpipe and even the heart.
Battery acid can leak and cause poisoning or more serious chemical burns.
If not treated within about an hour, damage to the esophagus can lead to infection and internal bleeding.
Mother Katie Woodside said Keith was in pain and crying, and was covered in tubes so she couldn’t pick him up and hold him.
Woodside, pictured with her husband Nick and their two children, threw away and hid everything containing a button battery in her home.
Dr. Ebony Hunter of Johns Hopkins saying: ‘Some children do not show signs immediately after ingestion.
“However, if a child has had a button battery stuck in the esophagus for a significant period of time, they may have pain, drooling, difficulty swallowing, voice changes, chest pain, coughing or spitting up blood, decreased from alcohol or food consumption, or abdominal pain.’
Button batteries are everywhere: toy phones, remote controls, key chains, candles, watches, and hearing aids.
A study published in the journal Pediatrics reported that between 2010 and 2019, approximately 70,322 emergency department visits were attributed to battery-related injuries, translating to an annual rate of 9.5 visits per 100,000 children.
Button batteries were the most common type involved, accounting for 85 percent of cases in which the battery type was specified.
Young children, primarily those five years old or younger, had the highest incidence rate, with 24.5 visits per 100,000 children. Ninety percent of the cases involved a child swallowing the battery.
Button batteries are smaller than bite size and a curious baby is prone to swallowing them and choking.
Woodside said: ‘I got rid of all the battery operated toys. Now we have rechargeable things.
‘If parents have battery-operated toys, they should get rid of them. Don’t have them. I don’t care if it doesn’t turn on or make noise, they can make the noise themselves.
‘You don’t think this will happen to you and your son. Many children are not so lucky.