Rare-Earth magnets are not something a person would even think to swallow; they are, after all, mostly used as bearings in car wheels or computer hard drives. These days, these magnets can be used for arts and crafts projects and are made available to the public. However, cases of children and teens accidentally swallowing the magnets are becoming more and more prevalent and giving lawmakers pause as to whether or not the public is safe from these pea-sized hazards.
One of the most recent cases of rare-earth magnet swallowing occurred in Florida when 14-year-old Christin Rivas unintentionally ingested them while laughing at a joke made by a friend. Originally Rivas was using the rare-earth magnets for a magic trick like pulling a pen from the opposite side of the wall but when she went to the bathroom, she did not want to put the magnets on the floor so she put them in her mouth instead.
"I do feel it was one of those stupid kid moments. I was going to the bathroom and I put them in my mouth because I didn't want to put them on the floor. I wasn't quite thinking. The kid on the other side said something that made me laugh and swallow them," Rivas recounts to ABC News.
Rivas was immediately brought to the emergency room where they initially told her that it would pass naturally but five days later, the teen underwent surgery removing the rare-earth magnets from her small intestine along with parts of her colon and appendix.
Not like regular magnets, the six rare-earth magnets Rivas swallowed were ingredients for an incredibly dangerous situation as they are more powerful than standard magnets. Ingested in groups, they could come together inside the digestive system causing immense damage, not unlike a gunshot wound.
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