Important Toy WARNING...Please read

Blossom

Thu, Dec 22 2005, 12:50 am

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When Penny Sweet's young son Kenneth Jr. fell ill Nov. 23, they thought he'd caught the flu. He threw up the whole day. The next day, Thanksgiving, Kenny still wasn't feeling well, so they took him to Evergreen Hospital Medical Center.

The hospital staff said Kenny was weak, had a low pulse and couldn't breathe, Sweet said. They were preparing an intravenous tube.

``They put an air tube in, and two minutes later he died of cardiac arrest,'' she said.

Kenny had not yet turned 2. An autopsy revealed he had swallowed two tiny magnetic cylinders that together had pinched his intestines shut. He died from septic shock, the resulting buildup of toxins in his body.

When Sweet heard about the cylinders, she knew almost immediately where they had come from: a toy.

The toy is Magnetix, which the Sweets had bought for their 10-year-old son.

Sweet wants to warn parents who might be buying the toy for x-mas about its potential danger.

She also thinks there needs to be a more stringent warning label on the toy.

``The warning labels need to say, `May cause injury or death,' and they don't,'' Sweet said Tuesday. ``If parents have them in their house, they need to be careful about them.''

Recommended for ages 6 and up, Magnetix toys consist of plastic pieces and metal balls that can be joined together to make elaborate constructs. What holds them together are the small magnets located inside the plastic pieces.

The magnets had fallen out and gotten into the rug at the Sweets' home, where the toddler came across them. At some point in the 10 days the family had the toy in the house, little Kenny managed to eat two of them, on different occasions, according to what the medical examiner told his mother.

When she told the staff of the medical examiner's office about the toy set, they came out to take the toy for examination.

``We did take the toy in as evidence and did determine that the toy did contribute to the child's death,'' said James Apa, a spokesman for the county health department.

The Medical Examiner's office also reported the product to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Sweet then told Fred Meyer, where she bought the Magnetix.

Fred Meyer spokeswoman Melinda Merrill said the company immediately removed Magnetix from their shelves companywide and alerted both the manufacturer, Rose Art Industries of Wood Ridge, N.J., and the safety commission as well.

It is now up to Rose Art and the Commission to determine what next steps need to be taken.

``Now we wait and see what comes out of the manufacturers discussion with the Consumer Product Safety Commission,'' Merrill said. That will determine whether the toy will be recalled permanently.

No recall is currently in effect, and there apparently haven't been any other reports of this problem with Magnetix.

A release in February 2004 by the Radiological Society of North America warned that children who swallow more than one magnet need immediate medical care. The magnets can attract each other in the intestines and lead to perforation of the intestinal walls, obstruction, and cell and tissue death.

Rose Art Industries could not be reached for comment, although Sweet said the president of the company had called her personally to ask about her son's case and to sympathize. Rose Art has more than 1,000 different toys, arts and craft supplies in its product line.

Kenny was the youngest child of the Sweets. They have six others, up to the age of 13.

``He was our last child,'' Sweet said. ``We weren't going to have any more children.''

Chris Winters can be reached at chris.winters@kingcountyjournal.com or 425-453-4232.