cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/45088835

A 13-year-old boy in New Zealand swallowed up to 100 high-power magnets he bought on Temu, forcing surgeons to remove tissue from his intestines, doctors said on Oct 24.

After suffering four days of abdominal pain, the unnamed teen was taken to Tauranga Hospital on the North Island.

“He disclosed ingesting approximately 80 to 100 5x2mm high-power (neodymium) magnets about one week prior,” said a report by hospital doctors in the New Zealand Medical Journal.

The magnets, which have been banned in New Zealand since January 2013, were bought on online shopping platform Temu, they said.

An X-ray showed the magnets had clumped together in four straight lines inside the child’s intestines.

“These appeared to be in separate parts of bowel adhered together due to magnetic forces,” they said.

[…]

Surgeons operated to remove the dead tissue and retrieve the magnets, and the child was able to return home after an eight-day spell in hospital.

“This case highlights not only the dangers of magnet ingestion but also the dangers of the online marketplace for our paediatric population,” said the authors of the paper, Dr Binura Lekamalage, Dr Lucinda Duncan-Were and Dr Nicola Davis.

Surgery for ingestion of magnets can lead to complications later in life such as bowel obstruction, abdominal hernia and chronic pain, they said.

[…]

  • 87Six@lemmy.zip
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    1 day ago

    Yea I feel like Temu is not at fault here, but rather, a lack of parents and a lack of brain

    • veni_vedi_veni@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      How do we know this wasnt a stupid TikTok trend like the forbidden fruit/tidepod thing?

      Maybe ban or actively filter that shit first?

      • 87Six@lemmy.zip
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        24 hours ago

        Another massive brain skill issue, lack of education, and no parents

        It wasn’t illegal to eat dirt and worms when I was a kid, but my parents told me not to, so I didn’t.

        You don’t need the governments controlling children through laws. Parents have that role. And education. End of story.

      • BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world
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        18 hours ago

        That’s on dumb parents sticking a tablet or a phone in their kids face before they can even learn to walk, so they don’t have to engage with them or put any effort towards raising them, such people should stop reproducing and the world will be a better place for it

    • Hotznplotzn@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
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      1 day ago

      Reading helps.

      The magnets, which have been banned in New Zealand since January 2013, were bought on online shopping platform Temu.

      • Taleya@aussie.zone
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        1 day ago

        As an older Queer, i gotta tell you “They are bad because it’s illegal” is not a good argument

        • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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          20 hours ago

          But if it’s illegal that must mean it’s bad?

          Ok now that we established that I have to go mindlessly coagulate in front of my 60th re-run of NCIS.

      • 87Six@lemmy.zip
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        1 day ago

        And? If you need to ban magnets country wide, the issue is probably the country’s education system, not the magnets or the seller of the magnets.

        You know what else helps? Having a brain, and parents that aren’t incompetent.