‘They look like little candies’: Boerne toddler undergoes emergency surgery after swallowing magnets

BOERNE, Texas — A Boerne toddler is recovering after emergency surgery to remove high-powered magnets from his stomach and intestines, and doctors say quick action likely saved his life.

Nineteen-month-old August Pollman was rushed to Christus Children’s Hospital in San Antonio after doctors discovered he had swallowed five small, colorful magnets — the type often marketed as stress-relief or sensory toys.

“They’re strong little magnets. They look like little candies,” said his mother, Mishka Pollman. “They look kind of like blueberries but a lot smaller.”

At first, Mishka thought August might just be dehydrated, so she gave him more water. But the toddler’s stomach pain continued, and by the next day, he was grabbing his stomach again.

“Two Mondays ago, he started holding onto his stomach and just saying ‘ow,’” she said. “I got a wipey and started investigating his stool and I found crafting beads, plastic ones you make bracelets from.”

She took him to a doctor in Boerne, where an X-ray revealed the magnets. 

“They’re like, ‘Hey, bad news. He must have eaten them on different days. Three were already down the intestine, then he had two in his stomach. The ones from his intestine started to magnetize to each other,’” she said.

From there, around 1 a.m., she rushed August to Christus Children’s Hospital.

The magnets had created holes in both his colon and his stomach. August was taken into surgery immediately. By 4 a.m., doctors had successfully removed the magnets and repaired the damage.

Hours after the sedation wore off, Mishka says August’s energetic personality appeared to be back to normal. He remained in the hospital for three days while doctors treated him for an infection. When he was discharged, he was prescribed Tylenol and Motrin for pain management.

“He had his post-op today. Everything is healed great. Kids’ bodies are resilient,” Mishka said.

Doctors warn August’s case could have had a very different outcome.

“It is an emergency, it’s a GI [gastrointestinal] emergency,” said Sheila Morin, lead endoscopy nurse at Christus Children’s Hospital, where she has worked for 22 years. “When a child swallows more than one, they can find themselves somewhere along the GI tract. That child can have life-devastating effects from losing lots of the gut…It could be fatal as well.”

Morin explained that magnets can pinch tissue together, potentially triggering necrosis — or tissue death. “Necrosis basically means an area where that tissue is not getting oxygen or blood flow,” she said.

Magnets also increase the risk of infection, and symptoms of ingestion can include abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

Morin’s advice to parents: “Get rid of them.”

She added that urgent care clinics often don’t have the specialized teams needed for these emergencies. “Go to a true children’s hospital as soon as possible,” she said. “Timing is everything.”

The Pollman family says they were always careful about button batteries but never thought magnets could pose a similar risk. Mishka, who is active in local moms’ groups in Boerne, is now sharing her story widely.

“I just don’t want any parent to have to go through what I went through that night,” she said.

Magnets are often advertised as toys, sensory tools or craft supplies, making them easy to miss in households with children. In August’s case, his older sister had brought the magnets home while crafting.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has been tracking magnet-related injuries for more than a decade. From 2010 through 2021, an estimated 26,600 magnet ingestions were treated in U.S. emergency rooms, with at least seven reported deaths worldwide.

In 2022, the CPSC approved a new federal safety standard requiring magnets to either be too large to swallow or weak enough to reduce the risk of internal injury. 

Still, the magnets remain on the market, and doctors say ingestion cases are common.

“This is why you have an on-call team on standby ready for these emergencies,” Morin said. “You can just turn away one second and they’re doing something else. This is not something to blame a parent for not watching. What we don’t know can hurt us.”

Friends and neighbors prepared meals and cared for Mishka’s other children while she and her husband were with August in the hospital.

“The entire community got together and really helped us out,” she said. “Even after we were released from the hospital so we wouldn’t have to focus on dinner.”

But most of all, Mishka hopes sharing August’s story will prevent another family from experiencing the same frightening situation. 

She now lives in a magnet-free home.

“They look like little candies,” she said. “Things that look harmless can be hazardous. I don’t want anybody else to have to go through that.”