Deadly danger of button batteries

Tragic death . . . Eliza Bashir

Parents are urged to be wary of the dangers of 'button' batteries as a campaign to reduce choking and poisoning is launched today by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents.

The society has joined the Public Health Agency and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health to raise awareness of the tiny killers.

The risk of children choking on button batteries — which can also do serious damage to the gastrointestinal system — is on the rise. One-year-old Eliza Bashir died eight days after swallowing a button battery in March 2013. The battery had burned the inside of her oesophagus and she bled to death.

Eliza’s mother had turned her back for only a second to get milk when her daughter swallowed the battery, from a small torch.

After an inquest, Coroner Simon Nelson wrote to the Department of Health to encourage the department to spread awareness of the harm batteries can cause children if swallowed.

When Eliza swallowed the battery Mrs Bibi assumed it would pass through her system, but it became lodged. Next day Eliza was taken to the Royal Oldham Hospital then to the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital by ambulance so it could be removed.

Though she seemed to recover and was discharged, she suddenly fell ill five days later, bleeding from her nose. She died in hospital.