They are increasingly present in our daily lives. Remote controls, toys or even watches, lithium batteries are everywhere. And when a child swallows one, the consequences can be very serious. It is also an increasingly important domestic accident: France has three daily hospitalizations of children under the age of six who have ingested a lithium battery.
Battery brand Duracell launched an awareness campaign on Saturday until December 31. Objective: to question parents and early childhood professionals about the risks that their children run in case of ingestion.
Camille Marcotte-Paty is one of the parents who has already experienced this type of accident. This mom is at work when she learns that her 4-year-old son Zadig just ingested a battery at home.
“I could no longer eat or drink”
Fortunately, Zadig’s parents knew the danger he was in. “My husband called the fire department and they immediately understood the seriousness of the events. Within five or six minutes the firefighters were already at home,” he says into the BFMTV microphone.
Go to the Zadig hospital because once ingested, the battery components activate and cause damage to the child’s esophagus, which will take several weeks to recover. “For a month, Zadig could no longer eat or drink, so he was fed by gastric tube at home,” recalls the mother.
These lithium battery accidents have quadrupled in twenty years.
“Act quickly”
Professor Florence Campeotto, a pediatric gastroenterologist at the Necker hospital in Paris, explains to the BFMTV microphone: “If we see that the battery is at the height of the esophagus, we have two hours to remove it. Beyond two hours, the injuries can be more important and this leads to necrosis, it is the destruction of the walls of the esophagus, it is very dangerous”.
Last February, the High Health Authority published a press release to help parents in case of ingestion of a lithium battery. She recommends “act fast.”
“It is recommended to fast the child without trying to make him vomit and call 15 or a poison control center, in order to trigger the assessment and proper care of the child without delay,” he says.
Source: BFM TV
