3 ms·

I have a friend whose child died as a result of swallowing two magnets. The child wasn't even small — school-age. Made a bet with friends that he'll be able to

by jwr 11y ago

I have a friend whose child died as a result of swallowing two magnets. The child wasn't even small — school-age. Made a bet with friends that he'll be able to swallow a magnet, and did. Then repeated the same thing next day (this is what's fatal, as it leads to intestinal pinching). Nobody knew. When symptoms started appearing and they got to a hospital, it was already too late. While I wouldn't go as far as preventing the sale of magnets, education is definitely important. People should be aware of the extreme and silent danger that small, spherical, and easy to swallow magnets pose to their children. As your comment shows, many are not aware.

simoncion 11y ago
> While I wouldn't go as far as preventing the sale of magnets, education is definitely important. Good thing that every reputable seller of such magnets plasters the outside of the packaging with warnings like "Not for children!" "Not a child's toy!", and includes very frank, easy-to-understand language about the potential hazards of ingestion of said magnets. That story about that kid is a tragic story. It's more tragic that the warnings attached to and included in the packaging surrounding the magnets didn't make their way to the kid who chose to swallow the magnets and the friends who took him up on his stupid bet. > As your comment shows, many are not aware. That's reading a lot into his comment. If you read the last couple of sentences of his comment, it's clear that he's talking about dangerous stuff. One can infer from this that he understands that strong magnets can also be dangerous under certain circumstances. Just because you're unaware of any deaths from a hazardous activity doesn't mean that you're unaware that an activity is hazardous. You dig? If anything, it's more a signal that the fatality or grievous injury rate from that activity is rather low.

by jwr 11y ago

simoncion 11y ago

> While I wouldn't go as far as preventing the sale of magnets, education is definitely important. Good thing that every reputable seller of such magnets plasters the outside of the packaging with warnings like "Not for children!" "Not a child's toy!", and includes very frank, easy-to-understand language about the potential hazards of ingestion of said magnets. That story about that kid is a tragic story. It's more tragic that the warnings attached to and included in the packaging surrounding the magnets didn't make their way to the kid who chose to swallow the magnets and the friends who took him up on his stupid bet. > As your comment shows, many are not aware. That's reading a lot into his comment. If you read the last couple of sentences of his comment, it's clear that he's talking about dangerous stuff. One can infer from this that he understands that strong magnets can also be dangerous under certain circumstances. Just because you're unaware of any deaths from a hazardous activity doesn't mean that you're unaware that an activity is hazardous. You dig? If anything, it's more a signal that the fatality or grievous injury rate from that activity is rather low.