An eight-year-old boy died for completing a challenge that went viral on TikTok.
This consisted of putting magnetic balls in the cheeks to simulate a piercing.
Rhys Millum, from Harrogate, England, swallowed ten magnets with a diameter of 3 millimeters.
According to family statements, Rhys had complained of stomach pains, but the hospital only diagnosed him with an infection and sent him home.
According to the boy’s mother, her son was “doubled over and screaming” in pain.
Rhys Millum passed away when ball-shaped magnets They stuck to his intestine and pierced it.according to the investigation.
The minor did not say that he had swallowed the magnets and it was not until a full body CT scan was performed after his death that they were detected.
These balls were a gift from his family, with which he was playing with his brother for a month.
No one had seen the boy put the magnets in his mouth and he never mentioned anything to his parents or doctors.
Coroner Catherine Cundy said during the investigation that he understood that “magnetic balls are available and legal,” but that he hoped “that the tragedy of Rhys’ death” would “highlight the danger of such objects, especially to young children who may swallow them.”
