They’re not actually Buckyballs, but anyway.

Three-year-old Payton Bushnell of Oregon underwent surgery over the weekend after she swallowed a total of 37 high-powered rare earth Buckyball magnets, commonly sold together as a desktop toy. Doctors said that the girl likely would have died had it not been for the operation, as some of the magnets had already torn several holes in her intestines and stomach. (ABC News)

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/slideshow/photos-xray-medical-scans-203364

Yeah, we originally had 125 of those (precisely) and now have 102. Mikey does often put them in his mouth so I suspect the solution to the mystery of their disappearance is alimentary, dear Watson.

dv said:

Yeah, we originally had 125 of those (precisely) and now have 102. Mikey does often put them in his mouth so I suspect the solution to the mystery of their disappearance is alimentary, dear Watson.

I’ve already used that in regard to a missing key.

Watson: That’s all very well Holmes, but what became of the missing key?
Holmes: I think you’ll find she dropped it in the canal.
Watson: But there are none around here…what canal do you mean?
Holmes: Alimentary, dear Watson.

Last month, 8-year-old Haley Lents of Indiana swallowed 10 magnets and 20 steel balls from a Magnetix toy set. The magnets and balls attracted one another within her digestive tract, ripping a total of eight holes in her intestines and forcing her parents to rush her to the hospital for emergency surgery. Lents later told reporters that the magnets and steel balls “looked like candy.” (ABC)

“Swallowing Hazard – Keep Out of Reach of Children”

dv said:

Yeah, we originally had 125 of those (precisely) and now have 102. Mikey does often put them in his mouth so I suspect the solution to the mystery of their disappearance is alimentary, dear Watson.

Might be advisable to book him in for some X-rays.

So why can’t they just be passed through harmlessly like when they eat small lego pieces and coins?

The magnets join together when they are in different parts of the intestines. They can get stuck that way and cause damage.

X-ray is a good idea.

Because they’re strongly magnetic. And will presumably attract each other from very different sections of the curled-up intestines, leading to ruptures etc.

dv said:

So why can’t they just be passed through harmlessly like when they eat small lego pieces and coins?

Kingy was trying to get us to swallow bitcons yesterday.

From: OCDC
ID: 302212Subject: Buckyball magnets
They’re not actually Buckyballs, but anyway.

Three-year-old Payton Bushnell of Oregon underwent surgery over the weekend after she swallowed a total of 37 high-powered rare earth Buckyball magnets, commonly sold together as a desktop toy. Doctors said that the girl likely would have died had it not been for the operation, as some of the magnets had already torn several holes in her intestines and stomach. (ABC News)

Hey petert, Weppy likes buckyball magnets. You should send him some!

If you swallow an actual buckyball it should be a non issue :)

Dropbear said:

If you swallow an actual buckyball it should be a non issue :)

We probably do every time we eat a BBQed snag.

I guess the fact that I am still here chatting to you rather than taking MAV to hospital means Bear is going to pip me for father of the year again.

dv said:

I guess the fact that I am still here chatting to you rather than taking MAV to hospital means Bear is going to pip me for father of the year again.

It was a tie between me and Fritzel a while back.

Dropbear said:

dv said:

I guess the fact that I am still here chatting to you rather than taking MAV to hospital means Bear is going to pip me for father of the year again.

It was a tie between me and Fritzel a while back.

Bren’s never gonna win that one…

Maybe I should go fishing for them by putting a paper clip on string and sending it down his throat.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/skepticpete/8670401926/

dv said:

Yeah, we originally had 125 of those (precisely) and now have 102. Mikey does often put them in his mouth so I suspect the solution to the mystery of their disappearance is alimentary, dear Watson.

More probably 126

More probably 126
————
Nah for real yo, it was 5 × 5 × 5 in a cube.

dv said:

More probably 126
————
Nah for real yo, it was 5 × 5 × 5 in a cube.

Are you sure you didn’t accidentally swallow them yourself?

Skeptic Pete said:

dv said:

Yeah, we originally had 125 of those (precisely) and now have 102. Mikey does often put them in his mouth so I suspect the solution to the mystery of their disappearance is alimentary, dear Watson.

More probably 126

There are (were) small Buckyball sets consisting of 125=5×5×5 balls, but they were more expensive per ball than the usual 216 ball sets.

As to the dangers of these magnetic balls,

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neodymium_magnet_toys

Neodymium magnets, usually small spheres, have been manufactured as educational toys. In several cases, children swallowed them, and injured their intestines, resulting in at least one death. As a result, regulatory agencies banned them, and the magnets are no longer marketed as toys. This led to a debate over the risks of toys and parental responsibility.

…

Buckyballs launched at New York International Gift Fair in 2009 and sold in the hundreds of thousands before the US Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a recall on packaging labeled 13+. According to the CPSC, 175,000 units had been sold to the public. It is not known how many sets were actually returned. Buckyballs labeled “Keep Away From All Children” were not recalled.

…

The swallowing of small magnets such as neodymium magnetic spheres can result in intestinal injury requiring surgery. The magnets attract each other through the walls of the stomach and intestine, perforating the bowel. The Centers for Disease Control reported 33 cases requiring surgery and one death. The magnets have been swallowed by both toddlers and teens (who were using the magnets to pretend to have tongue piercings).

Defenders of the toy say that the rate of injury is approximately 1 injury per 100,000 Buckyball sets and less than 1 injury per 21.5 million individual magnet pieces. By comparison, the rates of injury due to dog bites, tennis, skateboarding, or ingestion of poisonous household chemicals are between 100 and 1,000 times higher. The magnets are marketed to adults, with labels warning of their danger to children.

Before you whisk MAV (or yourself) off to the ER…look under furniture etc for stray/missing balls. They like to get stuck to metal wheels etc. I know because I had to pick them up at work….lots of times.

You can make a cool accelerator thingy with them too. If swallowing isn’t so fun…

Are you sure you didn’t accidentally swallow them yourself?

—-

Almost certain.

dv said:

Are you sure you didn’t accidentally swallow them yourself?

—-

Almost certain.

Almost infinitely certain.