Our story today is not for sensitive people, although we believe we should tell it. We don’t think parents should let their small children read it themselves though. However, we do advise them to warn their children of the danger of ingesting a button penny battery into their bodies. Current may flow between the terminals and burn their body tissue, even if they just stick it up their nostril or into their ear. We are astounded that stories like American paramedics giving wrong button battery advice to parents are still real and happening.
The Wrong Button Battery Advice the Paramedics Provided
A child in Florida swallowed a small button battery recently. Parents Yandy Joseph and Matthew Asea of Lauderhill were concerned about this, and called for medical assistance. According to Fox News, the paramedics considered transportation to hospital unnecessary.
Instead, they advised them to allow the button battery to pass through the child’s digestive system naturally. Now it takes food between 12 and 24 hours on average to pass through depending on the product. The button battery therefore left a trail of injury behind as it traveled. As we said, our story today is not for sensitive people, but we believe we should tell it.
It took three long months of hospitalization for the child to recover from its injuries We can imagine how they must have suffered during multiple surgeries.
The parents face a $1 million hospital bill because of the wrong button battery advice they received. We understand the city of Lauderhill’s commissioners are due to vote on a settlement deal next Monday, 30 April 2018. The Sun Sentinel of Florida believes the likely pay-out of $475,000 would be “one of the largest personal injury settlements in the city’s history”.
We do not think this is enough. Who else should pay the balance but the city? Reports in the media suggest the employees who gave the wrong button battery advice “have been retrained”. That, surely, suggests their training was inadequate on the day of the incident.
Related
Safer Button Batteries for Little Children
New Zealand’s Button Batteries Face Scrutiny
Preview Image: Various Sizes of Button Batteries
