- Kelley Whitty's daughter, Leah, accidentally got magnets from a reusable water balloon in her nose.
- The mom said she was lucky to have only damaged her septum as the outcome could've been worse.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kelley Whitty. It has been edited for length and clarity.
My daughter, Leah, was screaming with pain and panic as we sat in the emergency room. The doctor used a miniature probe with a flashlight to look up inside her nose. Various people had tried the same thing. Everyone was baffled.
Someone suggested that she had a blister on her septum, but the doctor couldn't see one. Then, all of a sudden, he said, "I can see something on both sides — something shiny."
It turned out that Leah had tiny silver magnets stuck at the very top of her nostrils. They had clamped together on either side of her septum. They were almost impossible to get out.
I'd never heard of reusable water balloons. But I later found out that the reusable silicone "self-sealing" alternative to the disposable type — the rubber balloons that kids discard in the playground around sprinklers — contained the magnets that caused Leah's injury.
It happened when she was at the home of my good friend, Jenn. My 8-year-old was having fun with other kids in the backyard swimming pool while I was working from home. Jenn called me. I could hear Leah screaming in the background.
We realized there were magnets in Leah's nose
Jenn said that Leah was beside herself. She had something in her nose, she said. It was burning and stinging. "At first, we thought it might be something like a bee sting," Jenn said. "It happened so quickly. But we can't see anything."
She said that Leah had gotten out of the pool and grabbed a towel to wipe her face. Then she'd started yelling. Her nose swelled up and the pain wasn't subsiding. I knew it wasn't good and she needed medical attention. I took Leah to Cincinnati Children's Hospital.
Jenn frantically searched around the pool to see if she could find anything there. I called her as soon as the doctor said he'd spotted something shiny inside Leah's nose.
"Oh, my God, I think this might be it," she said.
She sent me a picture of a little shiny magnet that was on the bottom of the deck box. It had fallen out of a reusable water balloon. A friend had brought balloons over for the kids to play with a few days earlier.
I showed the photo to the doctor.
"I think that's what we're working with," he said. A few other doctors came into the room. They said they'd never seen anything like it.
They used their tools to try and flick the magnets down her nostril so they'd come out. But the magnets weren't budging. They'd bonded to her septum from each side.
Leah was so upset that she was fighting and screaming. The doctors sedated her. They had to get their tools high enough inside her nose to drag out the magnets, pulling them apart from each side of the septum to loosen the tension. The force was so strong, the magnets had formed a little stack. The doctors released one magnet, then two, then three more. There were six in total.
They put them in a specimen cup. I sent a photo to Jenn. "They must have fallen out of the water balloon and got into Leah's towel somehow," she said. "Then, when she wiped her face, they'd gone inside her nose."
The damage wasn't as bad as it could have been. Leah had a perforated septum and was treated with oral antibiotics. An ear, nose and throat doctor said the cartilage would close by itself.
Mentally, it was traumatizing. Leah is still struggling with what happened. She won't let anyone near her face and is terrified whenever she sneezes. But she's back doing her favorite activities, like cheerleading.
I contacted Jenn's friend. She said she'd bought the reusable water balloons from Amazon and left them behind at Jenn's.
The magnets are used to keep each side of the balloon together, almost like a plastic Easter egg. But they're easily dislodged.
[Editor's note: Amazon told Insider that it had not been able to verify whether Leah's alleged injury resulted from any product sold on its website. It said there was no history of the water balloons being recalled and no incidents had been reported by customers.]
The doctors said the incident could have been fatal, especially if Leah had ingested the magnets. I wrote a public service announcement on Facebook I want to warn other parents about the danger of reuseable water balloons that use magnets.
We've hired a lawyer, who reported the incident to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. They also contacted Amazon.
But these balloons are everywhere. They should be taken off the shelves. I don't want any kid to go through what Leah did.
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