Horror After Button Battery Burns Hole in Toddler's Esophagus
After the scare that Cameron Soto’s parents went through in December 2017, they want to make sure other parents know the dangers of button batteries — something commonly found in many children’s toys.
As Marisa Soto was playing with her 3-year-old son, she noticed something wasn’t right.
“He looked okay, kind of, you could tell he was in discomfort and something was wrong, but it looked like he probably had a sore throat,” she said.
Concerned, she decided to take him to the emergency room.
As time went on, doctors were unable to find the source of the toddler’s discomfort, but his condition continued to worsen.
He wasn’t eating and eventually vomited and foamed at the mouth. At this point, Marisa pleaded with the doctors to perform an X-ray.
And thank goodness she did, because the X-ray revealed something much worse than a sore throat. It showed that the toddler had swallowed a button battery that was now burning a hole in his esophagus.
These batteries are dangerous because they are small enough for little ones to swallow, but large enough to get stuck in the throat. Then while stuck, the battery releases a charge and burns the tissue it is in contact with.
Cameron was quickly rushed to Connecticut Children’s Medical Center where medical professionals were able to remove the battery, but an extensive amount of damage had already been done.
He is recovering now, but the 3-year-old suffered from burns in his esophagus and severe inflammation. He was intubated for two-and-a-half months which effected his ability to eat, talk, and walk.
His family was by his side during his entire recovery process. “Every day, morning and night, [we] would pray with our other two kids. Whenever we would get bad news, got good news, it was just keeping the faith and not giving up. Literally putting it in God’s hands,” Marisa said.
Months later, the resilient little boy has learned to talk and eat again. He still wears a trach to help his quality of breathing, but doctors are unsure if that will be permanent.
Marisa hopes that their story will help other parents to be more aware.
She said, “It’s so hard to keep reliving the same moment but it’s like super dangerous. If we had known, we would’ve never have had any toys that have those batteries in our house.”
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