Shaare Zedek Doctors Save Life of Infant Who Swallowed Twenty Magnetic Balls
Over the years, our medical teams have seen countless cases of children who’ve ingested all sorts of foreign objects.
But one recent case presented a particularly unique challenge.
Last week, a one year old infant arrived at the Glaubach Department of Pediatric Emergency Medicine with fever and repeated vomiting. The abdominal x-ray showed that the boy had swallowed a large number of small metal and magnetic balls.
He was immediately transferred into the operating room where he underwent a gastroscopic procedure under the direction of Professor Eyal Shteyar of our Juliet Keidan Institute of Paediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition Unit.


The procedure lasted for over two hours as the team removed no fewer than 14 of the balls from the boy’s stomach. A follow-up scan showed that additional balls had moved down the tract towards the small intestine and the procedure continued to remove four more of the balls.
A final scan showed that two more of the magnetic balls had moved on but when it was determined that those had severed a tear in the intestinal wall which was potentially life-threatening, the decision was made to perform a more intensive emergency surgery.


The team from the Department of Pediatric Surgery consisting of Dr. Yaron Armon, Dr. Michael Koussa and Dr. Uri Blich, successfully removed the last two balls. Upon analysis, the doctors saw that the magnetic force had attached the balls to one another which had led to the obstruction and resulting tear in the intestine.
Upon completion of the surgery, the boy was transferred to the recovery unit and able to leave the hospital three days later in excellent condition.