When one-year-old Keith Karre swallowed a small battery, his family’s world was turned upside down.
Keith was playing with a toy phone in his living room beside his brother in January when he suddenly popped the battery out of the phone and into his mouth.
His mom, Katie Woodside, described it as ‘the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.’
She and her husband, Nick Karre, struggled to fish the small button-like item out of their baby’s throat, but he was turning blue, foaming at the mouth, and coughing up blood.
An ambulance rushed them to the hospital, where doctors confirmed the baby had swallowed a button battery, a small and flat circular object.
Ms Woodside, a hairdresser from New York, said: ‘When these batteries get wet, they have a chemical reaction and bubble up. They eat through the skin so they ate through his throat.
‘He passed out from the pain. It was absolutely terrible.’
Doctors performed surgery for 90 minutes to remove the button and Keith had to recover in the intensive care unit for two weeks.
Keith Karre now has scarring in his esophagus and is expected to have issues for life
Doctors performed surgery for 90 minutes to remove the button with Keith recovering in intensive care for two weeks
Ms Woodside added: ‘He was in so much pain. He was crying and he was covered in tubes so I couldn’t even pick him up and hold him.’
Button batteries like the one Keith ingested contain a mix of corrosive chemicals.
Alkaline batteries contain potassium hydroxide of sodium hydroxide, which can create a chemical reaction if swallowed.
This can rapidly damage tissue and cause severe burns in a short amount of time.
Lithium batteries are highly reactive to moisture – like saliva- and can produce heat, causing burns.
Keith now has scarring in his esophagus and is expected to have issues eating and swallowing for life.
As of now, Keith only eats pureed food and is completely unable to swallow solids.
His parents also invested in a device that can suck food out of his throat in case anything gets stuck there.
Button batteries are small enough for children to grab, swallow, and choke on. Keith popped it out of a toy phone and into his mouth
Ms Woodside said: ‘Kids usually bounce back pretty good, but he chokes on everything.’
About 2,500 American children swallow button batteries or place them in their ears or noses yearly, and a chemical reaction typically occurs within 15 minutes.
Swallowing these batteries can be fatal because they can cause severe chemical burns in the esophagus, which can cause holes there and in surrounding organs, such as the trachea and even the heart.
The acid in the battery can leak, leading to poisoning or more severe chemical burns.
If untreated in a within around an hour, the damage to the esophagus can lead to infection and internal bleeding.
Mother Katie Woodside said Keith was in pain and crying, and covered in tubes so she couldn’t pick him up and hold him
Ms Woodside, pictured with her husband Nick and two children, threw out and hid everything in their home that contained a button battery
Dr Ebony Hunter of Johns Hopkins said: ‘Some children have no signs immediately after ingestion.
‘However, if a child has had a button battery stuck in the esophagus for a significant amount of time, they can have pain, drooling, difficulty with swallowing, change in voice, chest pain, coughing or spitting of blood, decreased drinking or eating, or abdominal pain.’
Button batteries are everywhere – toy phones, remote controls, keychains, tea light candles, watches, and hearing aids.
A study in the journal Pediatrics reported that from 2010 to 2019, approximately 70,322 emergency department visits were attributed to battery-related injuries, translating to an annual rate of 9.5 visits per 100,000 children.
Button batteries were the most common type involved, accounting for 85 percent of cases where battery type was specified.
Young children, mainly those aged five years and under, had the highest incidence rate, with 24.5 visits per 100,000 children. Ninety percent of the cases involved a child swallowing the battery.
The button batteries are smaller than bite-sized, and a curious baby is prone to swallowing and choking on it.
Ms Woodside said: ‘I got rid of all the toys with batteries. We have rechargeable things now.
‘If parents have toys with batteries in them they need to get rid of them. Don’t have them. I don’t care if it doesn’t light up or make a noise, they can make the noise themselves.
‘You don’t think it will happen to you and your child. A lot of kids aren’t as lucky.’
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