More Kids in ER from Swallowing Batteries

May 14, 2012— -- Umar, 3, loved to eat chocolate chip cookies and drink orange juice. All of this changed last September when he ingested a lithium button battery.

His parents never actually saw him swallow the battery, but they began to get suspicious when they noticed that Umar was particularly lethargic, lying on his bed and breathing but not moving.

"Umar is such a hyper kid -- it was confusing and scary at the same time," said Umar's mother, Sonia Khan. "It was frustrating because we couldn't figure what was wrong with him."

His parents immediately rushed him to the emergency department where a chest x-ray was taken. Doctors found what was initially presumed to be a button in his esophagus.

But when the physicians took him to the operating room, they found severe damage to his esophagus because of what turned out to be a lithium button battery.

"I was devastated," Sonia Khan said. "I broke inside. I was hearing everything but couldn't believe it."

The battery ate a hole in his esophagus. As a result, for the next three months Umar had to receive all of his nutrition by a tube that connected directly to his stomach.

"It was tough on him," his mother said. "He didn't understand why he couldn't eat. We all had to hide from food from him."

Research published Monday in the journal Pediatrics suggests that Umar's life-threatening ordeal is an increasingly common one. Specifically, the study found that the number of children being taken to emergency departments with battery ingestions is on the rise.

In total, more than 65,000 visits involving kids who had ingested batteries occurred over the past 20 years. In the overwhelming majority, button batteries were the culprits.

These tiny batteries are becoming more and more ubiquitous as more devices powered by small lithium batteries -- the shiny, button-sized variety -- make their way into our homes.

So what makes these batteries so dangerous? Part of the problem is that lithium batteries are especially appealing to the child's eye, as they can mimic candies and can easily fit into small mouths, ears or noses. Occasionally, if a child swallows one of these batteries, it can pass through his or her body without incident. But this isn't always the case.

Dr. Ian Jacobs, associate professor of ear, nose and throat at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, was one of the doctors who took care of Umar. He said if a lithium battery stays lodged in the esophagus for more than two hours, the battery can erode through the soft tissue of the esophagus and cause a hole. This can be fatal.

Children who survive still face serious health issues. They may experience permanent paralysis of the vocal cords that may forever rob them of their speech. These batteries can also be harmful if lodged in other places. They can burn through the cartilage in the nose or into the inner ear, causing hearing loss or difficulty breathing.

Dr. Toby Litovitz, executive and medical director of the National Capital Poison Center in Washington, D.C., has done extensive research on the major and fatal outcomes associated with button battery ingestions and maintains a national database on these and other incidents. She found in a separate study that from 1985 to 2009 there was almost a seven-fold increase in the percentage of button battery ingestions with major or fatal outcomes.