A one-year-old girl identified as Eliza Bashir tragically died after swallowing a small battery in her home.
Eliza died on March 30, 2013 six days after having a button battery removed from her food pipe, an inquest heard.
Now her grieving family want all parents to know the dangers of products containing small batteries. The battery, which was surgically removed at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, burnt the inside of Eliza's oesophagus which caused her to bleed to death eight days after she swallowed it.
Once swallowed, a battery can burn someone's insides by forming an electric circuit or from fluid if the device leaks.
Eliza's death is extremely rare as she had a heart abnormality that meant one of her main arteries ran directly alongside her oesophagus - something her family and doctors were not aware of and just 1% of people have.
The damage eventually broke the artery which killed Eliza.
Eliza's mother, Naheed Bibi, had turned her back for just a second to get a bottle of milk when her daughter swallowed the battery which had come from a small torch bought from B&M Home Stores, Chadderton, that her son had been playing with.
Coroner Simon Nelson is now in the process of writing to the Department of Health to spread awareness of the harm batteries can cause to children if swallowed.
Eliza's father Mohammed Bashir said: "It is really important that we spread the message to other parents and make sure nobody has to go through what we have been through."
Infant Eliza, who was described as an active and playful child who brought joy to everyone she met, swallowed the battery on March 22 at 6pm and Mrs Bibi assumed she would naturally pass it through her system - which is usually the case - but it got lodged.
The next day, knowing something was not right, the family took Eliza to A&E at the Royal Oldham Hospital before an ambulance took her to the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital to have it removed .
Eliza was discharged on March 25 after showing significant signs of improvement and continued to grow in strength before suddenly falling ill and bleeding from her nose five days later.
She was taken to the Royal Oldham Hospital but her life could not be saved.
Mrs Bibi said: "I was screaming and crying.
"The colour in her face just started to get darker and darker and then blood started gushing from her nose."
Dr James Craige, who performed the surgery at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, said although nothing more could have been done for Eliza he and his colleagues are worried as they still don't know how best to deal with incidents such as this.
He said: "This has worried us all, the main reason being that it still remains very hard to determine the best way to treat patients like Eliza who have swallowed a button battery."
"We would only know she had the heart abnormality if we were looking for it and even then operating would have been a bigger risk than to just leave her to heal."
Nicola Hunt, Oldham Council senior training standards officer, said at the inquest in Heywood, Greater Manchester: "Due to the fact the torch is not classed as a toy it did not require a lockable battery compartment.
"Safety regulations were complied with. We have worked to devise an awareness poster for these batteries and it is to be distributed around the borough."
Mr Nelson said: "I am proposing to write to the Department of Health in regards to this matter.
"I believe that preventions and precautions need to be extended to include child-resistant packaging for batteries.
"One fatality is one fatality too many."
Post a Comment Blogger Facebook