Horrified mother Kelly Rose Joniec said her daughter Britton needed surgery
The metal toy was lodged in her throat after she accidentally swallowed it
The 10-year-old was attempting to clean it when it lodged in her throat
Kelly Rose now wants other parents to be aware of the choking hazard
Although some experts doubt whether fidget spinners — a toy designed in the '90s and marketed as a way to reduce anxiety and help people focus – are medically useful, they were widely considered benign until one Texas mother's PSA on choking risks recently went viral, with more than 700,000 shares in less than a week
The mother is sharing her experience in hopes it will serve as a warning to other parents about the choking hazards of the latest toy craze. A fidget spinner has a stable middle and a disc with two or three paddles that can be spun, much like a ceiling fan, to relax the user.
Kelly Rose Joniec of Houston wrote in a Facebook post that she was on her way home Saturday afternoon when she heard Britton, her 10-year-old daughter, choking in the back seat. She pulled over and discovered that her daughter had swallowed one of the bearings from her fidget spinner. After trying to dislodge the small piece of metal with the Heimlich maneuver, Joniec took Britton to the nearest urgent care center.
"She pointed to her throat saying she'd swallowed something, so I attempted Heimlich but there was no resistance. She said she'd put part of her fidget spinner in her mouth to clean it and somehow swallowed it," Kelly says.
The mom then brought her daughter to urgent care where she was checked for choking. When the staff couldn't tell whether the foreign object was along the airway or the esophagus, they were taken in an ambulance to Texas Children's hospital, where an X-ray revealed a spinner bearing—one of the quarter-sized, metal round parts of a fidget spinner—was lodged in Britton's esophagus. There, her daughter was taken to surgery where the bearing, which Kelly refers to as "bushing," was located and removed.
Doctors discovered the metal toy was trapped in her oesophagus, and she needed surgery to have it removed.
The distressed mother said Britton was taken for surgery after 'multiple, very stressful' attempts to place an IV.
After the ordeal she said: 'Fortunately we had a positive outcome, but it was pretty scary there for a while... not only because of the initial ingestion, but then the concern about the composition and structure of the object, and finally, the risk with general anesthesia.'
Now she is warning other parents to be careful and said the popular toys could be a choking risk.
She said: 'Kids of all ages may be getting them, but not all spinners come with age-appropriate warnings. The bushings pop out easily, so if you have young kids (under 8 yr old) keep in mind that these present a potential choking hazard.'
Fidget spinners are said to help children who suffer from Autism and ADHD by allowing them to concentrate their excess energy into one place.
The toys, which have ball barings, are held between the fingers, where a child can flick them and make them spin.
Since Joniec posted her warning to Facebook on Monday, it has received over 498,000 shares at the time of writing. While some online listings for fidget spinners do contain choking hazards, some don't, and Joniec's post shows that almost anything can be a choking hazard for children, and serves as a pretty visceral reminder for parents.
