TEMPLE, Texas — When it comes to toys this holiday season, many come with batteries, and those batteries, specifically button batteries, can be dangerous.
One mother and daughter shared their story with 25 News about a dangerous trip to the emergency room, and it could save other families from going through the same thing.
BROADCAST SCRIPT:
“Button battery ingestion, which can be extremely dangerous — particularly at that toddler age, school-aged kids — gets into a toy that has button battery in it," says Chief Medical Officer of McLane Children’s Hospital, Dr. Dominic Lucia, MD.
These batteries can be found in many toys and electronics that might be opened on Christmas morning.
"Make sure those screws are down tight, because what can happen, is they can ingest those, they get stuffed in the esophagus, or even the G.I. tract, and cause internal burns," Dr. Lucia said.
"They can result in needing multiple surgeries, so, really scary situation."
This is a situation Layla Linson and her daughter Raleigh can recall.
Raleigh was just 8-years-old when she swallowed one of those batteries earlier this year.
“She found this button battery — she’s got some sensory issues and she puts a lot of stuff in her mouth, and she put it in her mouth not thinking," Layla said.
"This was a case of it not being disposed of properly, I would say."
Raleigh was then rushed to the ER, then care-flighted to McLane’s Children’s Hospital in Temple for surgery to get the battery out.
“It got stopped at her esophagus, and it got a burn on it right next to her aorta valve," Layla said.
"That was really dangerous because if anything ruptured and made that burn open, she could start bleeding and she could die from it."
After a long recovery, little Raleigh is back on her feet with an important lesson.
“Although we aren’t excited we swallowed a battery, we are grateful she was able to respond so quickly and say “Hey, I did something I know is not okay, now let’s fix it'," Layla said.
