A TODDLER was left “coughing up black chunks” then fighting for life after swallowing a button battery from a remote control.
The tiny disc got lodged in 16-month-old Asa Allen’s throat while he was playing outside with his two siblings.
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Mum Kasey Allen, 32, who had travelled to visit her husband in Texas, United States, was cleaning the family campervan at the time.
She found the camera remote on the floor in pieces and noticed a flushed Asa coughing and drooling 30 minutes later.
Thinking he was simply a bit tired, the wedding photographer put the youngster down for a nap.
But Kasey says when he woke up he appeared worse and started “coughing up black chunks”.
READ MORE ON BUTTON BATTERIES
Concerned, the mum called a nurse friend who urged her to rush Asa to hospital.
Asa had an X-ray at a local health centre, which revealed a button battery was lodged near his collarbone.
He was referred to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, where the battery was fished out from his oesophagus around nine hours after he swallowed it before he was put on a ventilator for six days.
Kasey is sharing what happened to Asa, now three, in October 2023 as a stark warning to other parents.
The parent, from Monroe, Louisiana, said: “He found a camera remote, which was mounted on the steering wheel.
“I was in and out [of the campervan] but I never saw him get the remote. I then saw it lying on the floor in four pieces.
“I don’t know exactly when he swallowed it but it was around 30 minutes after I found the remote that his symptoms started.”
She described her son as “really flushed and fatigued”, adding: “He had started coughing a lot and salivating.
“I thought, ‘What has happened to you?'”
‘It was like a punch in the gut’
Kasey put a “tired” Asa down for a nap, but got the shock of her life when he woke up.
“His symptoms were worse,” she said. “He started coughing up black chunks of the battery coating and I thought, ‘Oh my God, his insides are coming out, something is wrong’.
“I called my friend who was a nurse practitioner and she asked me if he had access to a button battery.
“I said he had dropped a remote and maybe there was one in there, and she told me to take him to the emergency room right away.
“Doctors did the X-ray and he had swallowed a battery, which was lodged between his collarbone.
“From there, they transported us to a bigger hospital and they needed three doctors to get it out.
“By this time my husband was researching button batteries and I thought my son was going to die.
“I was shocked, I couldn’t even move, I really felt numb. It was like a punch in the gut.”
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After struggling to remove the battery from Asa’s oesophagus, they eventually managed to get it out.
“He came out [of surgery] and that was very scary for me to see because he did look dead,” Kasey said.
“He wasn’t moving and he had a thousand tubes going in him.”
Asa had to do “a lot of physiotherapy” and learn how to swallow and chew again due to the damage from the button battery, which caused his oesophagus to shrink to just 0.1in (3mm).
In November, the tot had reconstructive surgery on his oesophagus and was hospitalised for five weeks due to a leak from the organ.
A year and a half on from his ordeal, Asa is fully healed and able to eat again.
But Kasey, who has banned all button batteries from her house, wants to ensure all mums and dads keep electronics with them away from their kids.
We were meant to be in hospital for five days but ended up staying for five weeks
Kasey
She said: “Please watch out for button batteries.
“I don’t have them in my house anymore. We don’t even have toys with them as it’s not worth a life.
“Make sure everything is screwed in if something has one. I don’t want what happened to Asa to happen to another kid.
“It was a really scary time but I’m glad we’re finally on the other side of it.
“We got to keep him with us so we’re very grateful.”
What to do if your child swallows a button battery
BUTTON batteries – also known as coin batteries – are small, flat, circular batteries used to power everything from watches to calculators, remote controls to car keys, and electronic toys to LED lights.
They can cause severe problems if swallowed.
Great Ormond Street Hospital says: “The problems caused by button batteries are not usually due to chemicals leaking from the battery but because the battery itself reacts with bodily fluids, such as mucus or saliva.
“This creates a circuit to release a substance like caustic soda, which is a strong alkali that can burn through tissue.
“An alkaline substance is at the opposite end of the pH scale to an acid but is just as dangerous.
“Even ‘dead’ batteries have the potential to release the alkali so should be treated just as carefully as new batteries.”
If a child has swallowed a button battery, they might:
- Vomit fresh, bright red blood
- Cough, gag or drool a lot
- Appear to have an upset stomach or virus
- Vomit
- Point to their throat or tummy
- Say they have pain in their tummy, chest or throat
- Be tired or lethargic
- Be quieter or more clingy than usual, or otherwise ‘not themselves’
- Lose their appetite
- Not want to or be unable to eat solid food
If you think your child has ingested a button battery, take the following steps:
- Go straight to A&E
- Tell a doctor
- Take the battery packaging or product with you
- Don’t let them eat or drink
- Don’t make them sick
It’s important to get medical help as soon as possible.
“The button battery may have caused significant damage to the lining of the child’s oesophagus (foodpipe) – in some cases it may have burned through the oesophagus completely to form a hole,” GOSH adds.
“This may create a passage (fistula) between the oesophagus and the trachea (windpipe). It may also have damaged the vocal cords.
“It may have burned through the blood vessels in the chest area, including the aorta (main blood vessel leading from the heart).”
She added: “Asa had so much scarring. He couldn’t eat real food, he would throw it up.
“His oesophagus had shrunk down 0.1in (3mm); for his age it should be around 0.5in (12mm).
“In November, he had reconstructive surgery. We were meant to be in hospital for five days but ended up staying for five weeks because there was a leak from his oesophagus.
“It is now at 0.6in (15mm) and he is able to eat.
“He’s made amazing progress. He had never swallowed anything like that before – he wasn’t even putting things in his mouth, which kids his age tend to do.
“The first thing he put in his mouth was a button battery.”
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