5-year-old lady hospitalised after swallowing strong gold bar value £5300
A 5-year-old girl who swallowed a solid gold bar worth £5300 required a risky hospital procedure in order to remove the pricey object from inside of her stomach
The girl was hospitalised following the incident
A five-year-old girl was hospitalised after swallowing an entire gold bar while playing at home. The bar, which measured at around 4cm in length and weighed around 50-grams, reportedly became lodged in the child’s stomach, meaning complex surgery was required to remove it.
It is not known how the girl, who is from Beijing, China, ended up with the valuable metal bar, which is worth around £5300 in today’s market. However, according to reports in local media she had been playing with the object when the incident occurred.
According to the South China Morning Post, doctors were left fearful that the gold bar could become trapped in the child’s digestive system, something which could prove incredibly dangerous were her internal organs to become scratched or damaged, or if internal bleeding were to occur.
The 5-year-old has had the bar safely removed
The child’s parents reportedly reached an agreement with medical staff at Beijing Children’s Hospital to undergo an emergency endoscopic removal, a procedure in which doctors pass a long, thin, flexible tube fitted with a camera down a patient’s throat and into the stomach.
During the procedure, doctors discovered the gold bar lodged inside the girl’s gastric cavity, with doctors spending minutes carefully removing the foreign object from the girl’s stomach.
While the child has made a full recovery, children swallowing small objects can prove fatal.
It is not known how the girl ended up with the bar(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Back in 2024, eight-year-old Rhys Millum from Harrogate tragically passed away after swallowing 10 toy magnets, in what the coroner described a “tragedy”
The youngster had reportedly begun complaining of stomach aches two days before his death, with his mother taking him to hospital as a result.
Rhys was diagnosed with a suspected infection and sent home, but sadly two days later would pass away.
Children swallowing foreign objects can be extremely dangerous (Image: Getty Images)
Coroner Catherine Cundy said she “hopes the tragedy of Rhys’s death will highlight the danger of such objects”.
At an inquest at Northallerton Coroner’s Court, she gave a conclusion of “misadventure” on the balance of probabilities, which means a deliberate action caused an unintended death.
She said: “I offer my very sincere condolences and I am profoundly sorry.
“I understand the magnetic balls are available and legal but I hope the tragedy of Rhys’s death will highlight the danger of such objects, particularly to young children who may swallow them.”
