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Girl Swallows 30 Magnets, Survives

By CBS News

Indiana girl decides to snack on her Magnetix Building Set, is rushed to emergency room with 8 holes in her intestines Girl Swallows 30 Magnets, Survives

Published: Fri, May 30, 2008 - 3:34 pm Last Updated: Fri, May 30, 2008 - 4:10 pm

An Indiana girl could have died after swallowing thirty magnetic parts of one of her toys. Eight-year-old Haley Lents was lucky to have survived eight holes the magnets tore in her intestines.

Haley was playing with her Magnetix building set about two weeks ago when for an unknown reason, she decided to swallow the toy's balls and bars. She was rushed to Riley's Children's Hospital in Indianapolis for emergency surgery.

Haley says she feels good now, but learned her lesson. Her parents say they want to keep the tragedy from happening to another family. Jason and Amy Lents say the warning on the packaging is not enough and want the toy removed from store shelves and from Haley's school classroom.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is investigating Magnetix and Haley's case. Lents says Mega Brands asked him to send them the toy and issued a statement saying a redesigned, magnetic-free toy would be in stores in July.

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southfan1981 Says:

Sun, Jul 06, 2008 at 9:59 am

My son had them for years. I thought they encouraged creativity. I think he still plays with them at age 21. What is wrong with the kid that she consumed them? Maybe she has some deeper issues.

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sweetnsour Says:

Sun, Jul 06, 2008 at 12:14 am

I don’t think stronger warnings would have helped anyone that has no common sense. It appears here that the apple does not fall far from the tree. Since this is such an isolated incident perhaps Haley has inherited a lack of common sense from her parents and they do not need to blame the toy company who has been putting these toys out for years and only little Haley was stupid enough to eat them.

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Sprinkle Says:

Sat, Jul 05, 2008 at 8:24 pm

THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!!!! An eight year old should know better! And if she doesn’t, that’s the parents fault!! Not the toy company. My three year old doesn’t even put things in his mouth anymore! Parents need to take responsibility for things like this. A toy company put it on the shelf but a parent brought it into the home! If the parents knew that the little could not play responsibly then she should not have been left unsupervised with the magnets. And if the parents DIDN’T know, then how in the world was the toy company supposed to know? If the parents thought it was safe.... guess what ~ that is the parents’ fault not the toy company’s. Nobody knows your child like you do… and you made the choice to buy the product now grow up and take responsibility! Had your child erected some type of genuis art or something, you would take credit and you would not credit the makers of the toy! Right?!? How many of these toys were sold in 2008? How many were eaten??

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Heatgrand Says:

Mon, Jun 02, 2008 at 6:54 am

This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Her father wants them pulled off the shelf because of his daughters stupidity? My son is 5 and has had tons of hem for at least a year and he saw the story and thought it was crazy. At 8 she should definitely know better! Besides that when I saw her on CBS it looked like everything she said was 100% coached!!! This whole story is just ridiculous.

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DEW26M Says:

Fri, May 30, 2008 at 4:41 pm

Wow, these things have been around for ages, and now, one moron eats some, and they’ll probably quit making them. All because they didn’t list on the label what is normally known as COMMON SENSE !