A five-year-old girl was hospitalised after swallowing a solid gold bar worth around £5,300 while playing at home. The bar, which measured about 4cm in length and weighed around 50 grams, became lodged in the child's stomach, requiring complex surgery to remove it.
Emergency procedure at Beijing Children's Hospital
It is not known how the girl, who is from Beijing, China, ended up with the valuable metal bar. 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 feared the gold bar could become trapped in the child's digestive system, which could prove dangerous if her internal organs were scratched or damaged, or if internal bleeding occurred.
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, spending minutes carefully removing the foreign object.
Previous tragedy highlights dangers
While the child has made a full recovery, children swallowing small objects can prove fatal. In 2024, eight-year-old Rhys Millum from Harrogate passed away after swallowing 10 toy magnets, in what the coroner described as 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 passed away two days later.
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, meaning 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."
