Toy Magnets Can be a Very Real Threat (. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CP...),Health

"It's a serious thing," Dutta said.

Using minimally invasive laparoscopy, Dutta removed both magnets with three small incisions during a procedure that lasted two hours. Braden went home three days after the operation.

About two weeks later, the CPSC updated an earlier warning about magnet-containing toys. Several construction sets, similar to the one Braden played with, have since been recalled.

Many of today's toys contain rare-earth magnets, which are much more powerful than the magnets of yesteryear. "It's a new type of magnet that's extremely powerful, much more powerful than the magnets that we used to play with," Dutta explained.

Dutta wants to make sure that parents are aware of this risk. "It seems like such a benign thing," he said. "[But] these things look like candy to a 3-year-old."

"It all happened because of a toy," Eberle added. "I didn't comprehend it. It was surreal. . . He knew to run to us. That probably saved him. He knew to tell us that, thank God, or I would've thought it was the flu. It makes me so angry."

For her part, Jill Eberle started getting rid of all magnetic toys in her house, even the huge ones. But 10 months later, she is still finding the little pieces.

They're stuck to the side of a wall or a computer table," she said. "They're not gone yet."

More information

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has a safety warning on magnets.

SOURCES: Sanjeev Dutta, M.D., assistant professor, surgery and pediatrics, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, Stanford University; Jill Eberle
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