KING COUNTY, WASHINGTON - Today, officials from Public Health – Seattle & King County and Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center issued a warning about Magnetix, a building toy that has caused the death of one child in King County and has severely injured another. The toy is composed of multiple plastic pieces with small, strong magnets on their sides and corners. The magnets lock the pieces together. If magnets come off and at least two are swallowed, they can clamp together inside the body and cause injury or death.

“We have found that the loose magnets are a serious hazard when swallowed,” said King County Medical Examiner Dr. Richard Harruff. “If two or more get into the intestine they can cause severe or fatal injury.”

Last year, a King County Medical Examiner investigation and autopsy found that a toddler died after ingesting several of magnets that had come loose from the Magnetix toy being played with by his older brothers. The magnets got into the small intestine where they pinched together loops of bowel, eventually leading to a strangling of the intestine blood supply and gangrene.

Last week, a young child was brought into Children's Hospital with abdominal pain, vomiting and fever. Physical examination revealed that he was in shock and had an acute abdomen. He was taken to the operating room where a section of the intestine was removed. Two small magnets appeared to have been swallowed by the child and eroded the holes through the intestine. The child is recovering and is now in serious condition. According to his parents, he was playing with a Magnetix toy when they noticed a dislodged magnet.

Public Health is urging parents not to allow young children to play with these toys. The toy pieces should be examined carefully for loose or missing magnets. If older children are allowed to play with this toy, or any toy with small magnets, they should be well supervised and warned about the hazard in swallowing them and especially not to put any magnets in their mouth.

Public Health – Seattle & King County is among the largest metropolitan health departments in the country, providing effective and innovative health and disease prevention services that achieve and sustain safer and healthier communities for over 1.8 million residents and visitors of King County . Answering the needs of an increasingly diverse population, Public Health - Seattle & King County touches people's lives every day through health promotion and prevention activities, disease surveillance, health care, outreach and referral services, environmental health services, emergency medical care, jail health services, and readiness and response to public health emergencies.

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