Everyone was rooting for Taym. 

The 5-year-old was born with a congenital heart defect and had experienced a rough start to life. But soon he would be scheduled for a surgical procedure at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, to correct the heart defect and dramatically improve the little boy’s medical outlook. 

One of the requirements before scheduling such an operation is a cardiac MRI study, a scan that uses powerful magnets to capture detailed images of the heart. 

Before a diagnostic scan, doctors and clinical professionals with the Radiology Services team take the patient through rigorous safety screening procedures to help ensure that no metal is in or on their bodies. 

But on the morning of his scheduled MRI, as Taym was undergoing a final scan before his study, a puzzling image appeared on the screen. 

“If you have something that is magnetic, it will typically produce what we call a ‘blooming artifact,’ says MRI technician Kyssandra Couch. “It appears as a kind of solid blackness, void of signal.” 

The test was stopped immediately.

Could Taym have swallowed something? His dad didn’t think so.

“Taym had been fasting since 10 p.m. the night before,” says Atiyah, Taym’s dad. “At first, I had no clue what this could be.” 

The patient’s medical history showed no indication of implants or metal. 

What was this distorted image on the screen?

Solving The Mystery 

Taym was taken for an X-ray — and what it revealed helped to solve the mystery.

“A picture is taken and boom, there they are …” Couch says, “… these tiny little balls.” 

The X-ray showed what appeared to be several magnets, all stuck together in the patient’s abdomen. 

Time was of the essence. 

Taym was taken to a procedural room where a team of specialists had promptly assembled to help the little boy. 

Gastroenterologist Daniel McClenathan, M.D, guided an endoscope through Taym’s mouth and into his stomach to locate and remove the small, dangerous beads.

“About once a month we have a child that has swallowed magnets,” McClenathan says. “One magnet is no problem. But more than one can be a major problem.” 

Taym’s dad, a family doctor, pondered his child’s history, as he tried to make sense of what his son had swallowed and when. Then he remembered a fidget toy that an older child had ordered online months prior — a gadget with 100 or so little magnets that could be molded into shapes.

The magnets might have been in Taym’s body for days — or perhaps even months. The endoscopy revealed what appeared to be at least one “deep ulcer” or tiny hole in Taym’s stomach.

The child was admitted to the hospital overnight. The following morning, additional X-ray imaging would further show the severity of the damage caused by the magnets. 

The magnetic beads had caused a small portion of the stomach to adhere to the colon, eventually creating two fistulas, or tunnels. 

“What happens is, some of these magnets may move farther along in the intestinal tract than the others,” says Paul Danielson, M.D., chair of Pediatric Surgery at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital.

“Then when they attract and stick together, that pressure from the magnetic force crushes that tissue and the tissue dies. You can end up getting a ‘communication’ or sometimes, a leak between those two areas of the body.” 

Taym was taken to the O.R, where Danielson and the surgical team located the abnormal adherence between the stomach and the colon, separated them, cut the dead tissue away, and closed the holes.

To his family’s great relief, Taym tolerated the surgical repair well and healed quickly. 

It can be difficult for even the most attentive parent to see everything that a curious young child may put into his or her mouth. Although the Consumer Product Safety Commission is attempting to address this issue with new regulations, many magnets have been in circulation for years and remain a safety risk for children. Items manufactured in other countries and purchased online can and do still slip past regulators. 

Now Taym’s dad shares this cautionary tale with his own patients for the sake of their families: these magnets should not be considered toys and should not be around children. 

“Thinking not only as a father, but as a doctor, it was a blessing that they were able to find the magnets and to provide a path for the healing process,” Atiyah says. 

“The magnets could have done further damage. We don’t know how much worse it could have become.”