The Kiwi mother of a five-year-old who barely survived emergency surgery after swallowing 30 fridge magnets has tearfully described the "guilt" she feels over the ordeal.
Noah Lefau was rushed to Monash Children's Hospital in Melbourne, where he lives with his parents who hail from Ōtāhuhu, Auckland, after he was found curled up on the floor of their home in agony by his grandmother.
Following an x-ray at hospital, it was revealed that Noah had 30 magnets joined together in his stomach, Seven News reported.
The five-year-old then spent the next six hours in emergency surgery, with doctors removing the magnets and then stitching up 12 holes in his gut and intestine the magnets had caused.
Noah's mother, Christelle Lefau, was clearly emotional about the incident doctors say was not far off claiming his life.
"If it was less than half a day longer he would have died. The guilt that comes from it," Ms Lefau said.
It turns out, Noah used a chair to climb up and take the small silver magnets from the Lefau's fridge.
He thought they were lollies.
Dr Maurizio Pacilli who performed the surgery on Noah said the incident was unprecedented for him.
"I must confess, I've never seen a kid swallow 30 magnets," he said.
"They travel along inside the intestine and they are attracted to each other, so they're trying to get together and by doing this, they can actually create little holes inside the gut.
"We found about 10 or 12 holes, which then we had to fix and stitch one at a time and also we had to remove parts of the intestine."
But remarkably, despite a section of his intestine being removed during the surgery, Noah is now reported to have fully recovered.
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