Extract from ABC News
They have been labelled a tiny "killer" in households across the country, yet they are still made and sold every day.
Key points:
- A one-year-old girl has woken from a coma after surgery to remove a button battery
- She suffered burns to her oesophagus and is expected to remain in hospital for the next month
- An emergency paedetrician said button batteries needed to be boycotted
Button batteries hit the headlines this week after a one-year-old girl spent two nights in an induced coma after having a burning button battery lodged in her oesophagus for more than 28 hours.
Amity Buchanan from Mackay had found the tiny battery in an old car key fob forgotten in a drawer.
Awake and breathing on her own again, her parents, 27-year-old Daniel Buchanan and 21-year-old Jemma Gultzow, said they did not know the full extent of the damage to her oesophagus yet.
"The doctors have told me the answers will come with time," Mr Buchanan said.
"In seven to 10 days they can put the scope down her throat and have a look at the oesophagus and see how it's healing.
"We've got no idea at the moment."
Amity, who is expected to spend the next month connected to a feeding tube, is among the luckier ones, with three children having previously died from swallowing a button battery in Australia.
Two coronial inquests, 13 recommendations and a new safety standard later, about 20 children present to emergency departments across the country each month, and at least one will require surgery.
Mr Buchanan earlier this week criticised Mackay Base Hospital for dismissing their daughter and her symptoms the first time they went to the emergency department.
But emergency paediatrician and Kidsafe Queensland president Dr Ruth Barker said a presentation like this could be missed by any medical professional.
'Boycott the button battery'
Eight years ago, Dr Barker gave evidence to a coronial inquest into the death of a four-year-old Sunshine Coast girl who died after swallowing a 2-centimetre lithium battery.
Thirteen recommendations were made, including that manufacturers develop safer batteries and more secure packaging.
In 2022, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission introduced four mandatory standards to reduce the risk of death and injury to young children from button batteries.
These included the need for button batteries to have secure compartments, and for suppliers to use child-resistant packaging with safety warnings.
The standards are enforced under Australian consumer law and can result in a fine of up to $10 million.
But Dr Barker said it was not enough.
"It still comes down to this: Industry are still making button batteries, companies are still selling button batteries, and we are still buying them," she said.
Dr Barker said there had been too much focus in the media about "the failure of the Mackay Base Hospital", alongside backlash on social media questioning how Amity was able to access a battery.
"No amount of parental supervision, regulation or regulator enforcement will stop this issue until we eliminate the problem," she said.
"Button batteries kill children. Boycott the button battery."
Calls for earlier X-rays
Amity's case has brought up memories for Melbourne mother Allison Rees, who lost her daughter Isabella after she swallowed a button battery in 2015.
"It's definitely caused a lot of emotions and brought back some memories of our time at the hospital with Bella," Ms Rees said.
She said it took three visits to the hospital for her baby to receive an X-ray, and by the time it was done, it was too late.
Ms Rees was horrified to hear that her nightmare had nearly happened again to another family.
"It's been nearly 10 years since Summer passed. I would have hoped by now there would have been some medical reform in this area," she said.
A Queensland Health spokesperson says its "ingested foreign body guideline provides clinical guidance for all staff involved in the care and management of a child presenting to the ED with a suspected or confirmed ingested foreign body".
It was developed with the assistance of senior ED clinicians and paediatricians across the state, as well as specialists from the Queensland Children's Hospital.
"In relation to the recent case of a child swallowing a button battery in Mackay, a review of the child's presentation to the Mackay Base Hospital ED [emergency department] is underway," the spokesperson said.
"Queensland Health will consider if the guideline requires further assessment once Mackay Hospital and Health Service's review is complete."
'Every minute counts'
During Isabella's coronial inquest, Ms Rees said she was told that hospitals tried to avoid X-rays on first presentation due to possible radiation exposure.
"However, when you've got a foreign object that's been ingested and unwitnessed, the diagnostic thinking needs to change and an imaging on that first presentation just to rule out a button battery would be ideal," Ms Rees said.
Ms Rees acknowledged the government and ACCC had put mechanisms in place to mitigate the harm of button batteries and believed the onus of responsibility was now on medical systems to do the same.
"[If there is a potential swallowing] we need to do [an X-ray] straight away because these button batteries, they are time crucial," she said.
"Every minute counts to saving a child's life."
Ms Rees said a focus on disposing of batteries properly, and a reconsideration of what items should be powered by button batteries, was also crucial.
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