Boy, 13, swallowed the high-power magnets after apparently buying them from the online retailer Temu

Left unanswered: Why would anyone intentionally swallow one magnet, let alone 100? This is like blaming Temu for someone drinking gasoline.

A 13-year-old boy in New Zealand swallowed up to 100 high-power magnets he bought online, forcing surgeons to remove tissue from his intestines, doctors said on Friday.

After suffering four days of abdominal pain, the unnamed teenager was taken to Tauranga hospital in the North Island. “He disclosed ingesting approximately 80 to 100 5x2mm high-power (neodymium) magnets about one week prior,” said a report by hospital doctors in the New Zealand Medical Journal.

The magnets, which have been banned in New Zealand since January 2013, were bought on the online shopping platform Temu, they said.

An X-ray showed the magnets had clumped together in four straight lines inside the child’s intestines. “These appeared to be in separate parts of bowel adhered together due to magnetic forces,” they said.

  • KumaLumaJuma@feddit.uk
    9·
    2 days ago

    Left unanswered: Why would anyone intentionally swallow one magnet, let alone 100? This is like blaming Temu for someone drinking gasoline.

    Pica?

    • TehPers@beehaw.orgEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      Isn’t the goto for pica corn starch or something? Regardless, there are many safer options. Even chewing on a rubber tire is probably safer as long as you wash it first.

    • Powderhorn@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      Not sure how a sixth of an inch is relevant.

      Design humour aside, I presume they have dirt available. Don’t even need to order it online!