After suffering from abdominal pain for four days, the teenager was taken to hospital in Tauranga on the North Island. "He admitted to having ingested between 80 and 100 powerful neodymium magnets, approximately 5x2mm in size, a week earlier," indicates a report by doctors at the hospital, published in the New Zealand Medical Journal (NZMJ).
This type of magnet, banned in New Zealand since January 2013, was reportedly purchased from the Chinese e-commerce platform Temu. Doctors said the pressure exerted by the magnets caused necrosis in four areas of the boy's small and large intestines.
Surgery following magnet ingestion can lead to complications
He underwent surgery to remove the magnets and dead tissue, and was discharged home after eight days in the hospital. The article explains that surgery following magnet ingestion can lead to complications, such as intestinal obstruction, abdominal hernia, and chronic pain.
Read alsoGardener dies in Nantes after ingesting a plant
A Temu spokesperson said in a statement that the company had "launched an internal investigation and contacted the authors of the article (…) to obtain more details on this matter." "Our teams are reviewing the affected product sheets to ensure their full compliance with local safety requirements," he added.
English 
French