A 13-year-old boy in New Zealand was taken to the hospital with abdominal pain that lasted for four days. An examination revealed that he had swallowed about 80 to 100 high-strength magnets a week ago. X-rays showed the magnets had been connected into four long chains at different parts of his intestines, a case described by medical staff as one of the rarest cases of foreign body swallowing.
These neodymium magnets with a diameter of 5 mm and a thickness of 2 mm were purchased by the boy through an online platform. Following the incident, the boy underwent major surgery to remove the magnets and ultimately had part of his intestines removed, before being discharged from the hospital just eight days later.
Alex Sims, a professor at the University of Auckland, pointed out: "As this case shows, swallowing small high-strength magnets can be life-threatening. Such magnets are usually sold as tabletop toys. Because of their bright colors and changeable shapes, they attract children's attention and can easily cause swallowing."
In fact, it is not uncommon for children to swallow magnets. In 2024, an eight-year-old boy died due to intestinal obstruction caused by swallowing a bunch of small magnetic balls. Earlier this year, another seven-year-old boy was also rushed to hospital after swallowing a magnet from the board game Kluster. Last year, 44 children in Australia were hospitalized after swallowing magnets. Swallowing a magnet usually does not cause serious harm, but multiple magnets can attract each other in the body, causing tissue compression and damage. In severe cases, it can cause intestinal perforation and even be life-threatening.
The research team in this case particularly emphasized that in addition to the dangers posed by the magnets themselves, online purchasing channels also put children at higher risk. New Zealand has banned the sale of such magnets, but boys can still buy them easily through platforms such as Temu. Ekant Veer, a professor at the University of Canterbury, warned parents that they should pay close attention to their children's online shopping behavior and prevent social media and Internet trends from leading minors to buy potentially dangerous items.
Although related cases have occurred frequently in recent years, children swallowing magnets is nothing new. As early as 2013, reports of a three-year-old child requiring emergency surgery after swallowing a magnetic ball appeared in medical journals. According to researchers, magnet products have developed rapidly in the past 25 years, and the magnetic force of rare earth neodymium iron boron magnets is 10 to 20 times that of traditional ferrite magnets. As patents opened and manufacturing techniques advanced, the Internet fueled widespread adoption of magnet consumer products—including tabletop toys, children's building blocks, and accessories.
Experts point out that if only a single magnet is swallowed, serious complications will usually not occur, but the strong magnetic force between multiple magnets can penetrate the intestinal wall and cause tissue necrosis or even perforation. This new case once again demonstrates the hidden dangers posed by high-strength magnets, turning what was originally a "moderate risk" problem of foreign body swallowing into a common and fatal emergency.
Conclusions and recommendations: High-strength magnets will inevitably continue to exist as toys, but as long as children are prevented from swallowing them, the risk of acute life-threatening injuries can be reduced to zero.