In New Zealand, a 13-year-old boy had several necrotic parts of his intestines removed after swallowing nearly a hundred magnets purchased online from the Temu website, a medical journal reported Friday. After suffering abdominal pain for four days, the teenager was taken to hospital in Tauranga, North Island.
“He confessed to having ingested between 80 and 100 powerful neodymium magnets, approximately 5×2 mm, a week earlier,” indicates a report by the hospital’s doctors, published in the New Zealand Medical Journal (NZMJ). This type of magnet, banned in New Zealand since January 2013, would have been purchased on the Chinese e-commerce platform Temu.
Operation and eight days of hospitalization
Doctors said the pressure from the magnets caused necrosis in four areas of the boy’s small and large intestine. He underwent surgery to remove the magnets and dead tissue and was able to return home after eight days in the hospital.
The article explains that surgery after magnet ingestion can lead to complications, such as intestinal obstruction, abdominal hernia, and chronic pain.
A Temu spokesperson said in a statement that the company “initiated an internal investigation and contacted the authors of the article (…) to obtain more details on this matter.” “Our teams review the relevant product sheets to ensure they fully comply with local safety requirements,” he added.
Source: BFM TV
