Comments on: Girl Swallows Steel, Magnet Toy Parts, Survives Emergency Surgery

By: Johnathan

Johnathan — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 13:44:16 +0000

Kid is an idiot. Parents need to be put in a deep hole and left there. The world needs less stupid people like this.

By: spec. ed. teacher

spec. ed. teacher — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:04:54 +0000

An eight year old with normal intelligence should not be exhibiting this behavior. Instead of suing the manufacture I think it would be a good idea for the parents to research a condition known as pica. http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/mental-health-pica-medref (compulsive eating of nonnutritive substances).

By: Renae Reid

Renae Reid — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:15:43 +0000

Was this girl retarded? Because, I don’t know one 8 year old stupid enough to swallow metal objects unless they have some degree of brain damage. Then, the parents have the audacity to blame the toy manufacturers. What, are you kidding me? I wouldn’t even show my face on national television claiming this 8 year old who decided to swallow metal objects to the point of having emergency surgery. That’s stuff a 2 year old does, not an 8 year old. When she recovers from this surgery, she needs to be whipped not told that it’s not her fault.

By: Mrs K

Mrs K — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:22:37 +0000

Defender of Justice: MOST kids DON’T just do this….especially not at 8. At 3, yes, sure, perhapss a three year old might eat a few of these magnets b/c they LOOK like candy; however at 8 most more-or-less developmentally normal children know the difference by candy when they taste a metal ball or plastic magnet…. Obviously there’s something more going on here than a young person “thinking the toy was candy” but is the toy manufacturer to blame for it? I would surely hope not. If you think about it, many toys/games have small pieces. Should we then extend the blame to milton bradley b/c the game pieces in “sorry” are colorful and could be mistaken for candy??

By: Jade

Jade — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 16:22:15 +0000

I think the child was looking for attention that she OBVIOUSLY is not receiving from her parents. I bet they were just sitting on the couch and watching television, like they probably do night after night. I know as a parent it is tough to work 40 hours/week and still have enough energy to spend with an 8 year old, but it is necessary! Take her to the park, go for a walk, play a board game, draw/color READ A BOOK together.

If these parents win this case it will be extremely upsetting.

By: Jade

Jade — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 16:20:20 +0000

I think the child was looking for attention that she OBVIOUSLY is not receiving from her parents. I bet they were just sitting on the couch and watching television, like they probably do night after night. I know as a parent it is tough to work 40 hours/week and still have enough energy to spend with an 8 year old, but it is necessary! Take her to the park, go for a short walk, play a board game, draw/color, READ A BOOK together.

If these parents win this case it will be extremely upsetting.

By: Alan

Alan — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 12:15:16 +0000

Defender of justice, you are obviously playing the devil’s advocate and are not serious. Your statement that we would have done the same thing at her age is ridiculous. My parents had six children. A favorite game for us when we were young was Chinese Checkers. This game is played with a large number of marbles. None of us ever ate them. We also played marbles and jacks and had small “super balls” which we could actually bounce over the house. But we never ate them. As I remember, most of our play was unsupervised by our stay at home mother. You see, she and my father had taught us responsibility and common sense.

By: James

James — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 05:28:30 +0000

Defender of justice, you should change your handle to “defender of lawsuit abuse” or “defender of the lawsuit lottery”. I really cannot believe that there are people with no common sense what so ever, but here you are.
When is a person responsible for their own behavior? There are thousands of products made by man which are small enough to swallow and will assuredly harm or kill you. There are thousands of products made by man with chemicals that are fatal if swallowed. There are millions of natural things such as pebbles, berries, dirt, seashells, etc. that you could swallow and be harmed or die.
A society can label the man made items with warnings such as “not safe for consumption” or in a million different ways and there will always be someone who consumes it for reasons unknown.
In the natural world that is the process of natural selection. Many people died over the past millenia testing foods. Whoever ate the first oyster must have been starving!
Now comes the advent of the blameless society with the ambulance chasing lawyers and people like you who cannot stand to look in the mirror and take responsibility for your actions. Someone else is always at fault. But why should you? Our political heroes have redefined our responsibilities for us. We have welfare, social security, medicare and medicade, affirmative action, etc. We now are headed for universal healthcare because we are “entitled” to it. ( So they tell us)
As to this sad story, yes, children swallow things. That is why, as a parent it my responsibility to teach my children what is safe to eat so they don’t experience natural selection. Every animal on this earth behaves this way. It is survival instinct. It is common sense.
And as to your comment that everyone would respond the way these parents have, I believe that just by reading these comments you would see that probably in excess of 99.8% would not.
For people who view things like you do, what this country needs is a loser pays system to cut out law suit abuse.

By: James

James — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 04:12:39 +0000

I have a 11 year old son who I showed this story to. He was amazed that an 8 year old would swallow the magnets and steel balls. He recalled the time his little brother swallowed a penny once at the age of 3 (he is now 8). He then made the analogy that these parents sueing this company would be equal to us sueing the government for making coins small enough for children to swallow.
I am proud to say: He gets it!

By: Lisa

Lisa — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 01:09:59 +0000

This is insane. EIGHT years old?? First of all, I love this toy, my Autistic son loves this toy, every one of my four kids loves this toy and they stopped putting things in their mouths at 3! I TAUGHT my children to not swallow items, THAT IS MY JOB AS A PARENT!

EIGHT year olds DO NOT swallow toys! We are now going to outlaw magnets??? How asinine is this??

I would have taught my child a lesson and made them realize how STUPID their action was by swallowing a toy..which by 8 they should already know! This is the child’s fault..this is the parent’s fault, NO ONE ELSE!

There is NOTHING WRONG with the toy, but there is something drastically wrong with this family situation. How on earth does an eight year old swallow that many with the parents not noticing?? Apple doesn’t fall from the tree, does it??

I am sick and tired of hearing stories of people trying to ban things that are perfectly safe if USE PROPERLY.

This reminds me of the South Park episode where they outlawed cats because cats were being used as a drug (don’t ask) point being, we cannot outlaw everything in the name of safety when it is the responsibility of the owner to as intended.