01 February 2024 , 17:36
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A "fearless" eight-year-old boy killed by swallowing ten magnets may have been following a deadly social media craze, a coroner ruled today.
Rhys Millum died after his small intestine was perforated by ten silver round magnets each measuring 3mm. Tragically the objects had all stuck together in a 30mm long row in his bowel and he had not told a soul he’d swallowed the tiny balls. The youngster, described as a "daredevil" and "livewire", swallowed them ten days after a chat with his brother about boosting social media profiles by performing daredevil stunts.
"The reality of what was inside him" was only revealed by a full body CT scan several days after he died, a coroner said. Mum Andrea Boyd, from Harrogate, North Yorkshire, said Rhys had been fine until the morning of Friday, September 30 2022. Her son came into her room complaining of stomach pain, she said.
"He was doubled over screaming. I gave him Calpol thinking it was wind. It did not seem to settle him much," she added. The hearing was told how Rhys’s big brother, aged 10, was also off sick at the time with a cold. Mrs Boyd decided to take both boys to Harrogate District Hospital A & E department where Rhys was triaged by a nurse in a cubicle and given more painkillers and anti-fever medication.
He appeared to be recovering and after a doctor completed three physical examinations of his abdomen and further periods of observation, it was decided he was fit for discharge. On the way home, she brought him sweets and sushi as a treat but he threw the whole lot up again shortly after being placed under a duvet on the couch. She was advised to bring him back if he took a turn for the worse and on Sunday evening he appeared while his dad Richard Millum was bathing his sibling, saying he "could not see".
Baby boy has spent his life in hospital as doctors are 'scared' to discharge him
He sat down in a chair and shortly afterwards lost consciousness. Mr Millum tried desperately to revive his son with the kiss of life and called an ambulance. The paramedics continued to work on him in the flat and ambulance before taking him to intensive care. He suffered a heart attack on arrival at the hospital and was placed on life support but never regained consciousness despite frantic attempts to revive him and was declared dead the same evening.
It was during the post-mortem days later in Newcastle that the pathologist spotted a 30mm by 3m metal object - which they first thought was a metal screw that Rhys had swallowed. But on closer examination they found it was a row of ten 3m wide silver spherical magnets that had all stuck together in a row and pierced his small intestine and lodged in his bowel, causing death.
Northallerton Coroner’s Court was told that the magnets were among a number of toys that had been given to Rhys and his brother by a family friend during a house clear-out. The toys are marketed as a creative plaything that allows children to arrange the multiple magnets into sculptures, the hearing was told. Devastated mum Mrs Boyd said in evidence: "We did try to brainstorm why he would put them into his mouth. Someone mentioned this TikTok thing and thought it might be that."
She understood they had featured on TikTok as a "fake piercing challenge". You put one magnet on the outside of the cheek and the other on the inside of the cheek. The magnets then stuck together to give the appearance of a piercing. She continued that Rhys was a "daredevil", adding: "He did not really have any sense of danger. He was pretty fearless. We always joked he would be a stuntman when he was older."
Mr Millum said his son had owned the toy for about a month. He added: "It was a tin of magnets. There are quite a lot of them and they market them as a toy…He loved those magnets. He was messing around with them all the time. We would be at my mum’s for dinner and they would appear out of his pocket. Sometimes he would be playing with 30 or 40 of them at a time."
But he said he never saw him put them in his mouth. Cops also found a video of him chatting to his brother on the trampoline where the siblings discussed boosting social media profiles by doing stunts that were "a bit daredevil.. like drinking hot sauce". The video was recorded on September 19, ten days before the tragedy unfolded. A police forensic examination of the dead boy’s tablet confirmed he did not have a TikTok account but the coroner noted it was possible to watch TikTok videos on other platforms like YouTube.
Recording a misadventure conclusion, the coroner, Mrs Catherine Cundy. She added: "I do note they (the police) found a video of him playing with his brother showing Rhys was at least aware of the concept of social media challenges and would have had had access to social media platforms like YouTube and may have seen people using magnets in this way.
"This was a wholly tragic series of events. Rhys did not understand the dangers of swallowing these magnets and did not tell anyone he had swallowed them or linked them to his symptoms. I know these magnetic balls are legal to sell. I hope the tragedy of Rhys’s death will at least highlight the dangers, particularly to children who might swallow them, accidentally or deliberately, without being aware of the dangers."