A science-mad Prestwich schoolboy was forced to undergo life-saving surgery after swallowing 54 magnet toys to see if he’d become “magnetic”.
And now his mum is raising awareness of the risks and dangers.
When 12-year-old Rhiley Morrison chomped down the small magnetic balls on two separate occasions, he was simply just curious to see if it would make metal stick to his tummy, and what they would look like when he passed them, but when the metal balls didn’t make an appearance four days later, the worried lad confessed to his mum hat he swallowed two “by accident”.
After she rushed him to hospital, doctors x-rayed the boy and were stunned to discover 54 of the powerful magnet toys in his stomach and bowel.
Fearing the magnets may burn through tissue or vital organs and go on to cause potentially-fatal internal damage, doctors rushed him to surgery where the objects were scooped out during a six-hour operation, and now that he’s recovering at home, his mum – Paige Ward – is sharing the story of Rhiley’s 16-day hospital ordeal.
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She is keen to educate parents about the potential dangers of these toys, and urge them to be binned before it happens again.
“I was gobsmacked, just speechless when I heard the number he’d swallowed.” Paige said.
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“The doctors guessed around 25-30 from the x-ray, but when he came out of surgery they said they got 54.
“I think what made it harder is that I just didn’t understand how or why he would swallow that many, [but] Rhiley is massively into science [and] he loves experiments, [so] he eventually admitted ‘I tried to stick magnets to me, I wanted to see if this copper would stick to my belly while the magnets were in’.
“It’s just so silly, but he’s a child and that’s what kids do.
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“He also thought it would be fun seeing them come out the other end.”
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Rhiley – who has autism and ADHD – asked for magnet toys for Christmas and bought the additional £4.99 magnetic balls from a corner shop with money he’d saved up.
It’s believed that Rhiley swallowed the first batch on 1st January, and the second lot on 4th January.
But when none of the magnets passed through his system, he confessed to his mum at 2am on 5th January and she quickly took him to Salford Royal Hospital, but following the x-rays and discovery of just how many of the incredibly-powerful magnets were inside him, doctors sent the pair by ambulance to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.
Rhiley was then placed on the list for emergency surgery and had a keyhole procedure to remove the magnets.
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Due to complications related to ingesting the powerful magnets, Rhiley spent 10 days unable to move without vomiting green liquid caused by his bowel leaking, and he was also unable to eat or go to the toilet and needed to be tube-fed with a catheter inserted.
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“It was heartbreaking watching him go through all that, just horrible,” Paige continued.
“I think it’s especially difficult because of COVID meaning he couldn’t have any visitors [but] it was just horrible to see him not able to sit up and being so sick every time he moved because this fluid was sloshing around inside him.
“I’d managed to hold it together all the time, but it wasn’t nice seeing him in that much pain.
“When they tried to put the catheter in, he had pins and needles through his body and told me ‘I feel like my insides are going to explode’. I remember thinking, I can’t believe all this is happening because of magnets.
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“When I went into hospital, I thought ‘God, they’re going to think how has she let him do that?’ [but] a trauma nurse came in and told me she deals with kids like Rhiley who’ve eaten magnets all the time, and another doctor said he’d seen a child who’d swallowed two who ended up with part of their bowel removed, so Rhiley was very lucky with 54.”
Rhiley was discharged on 21st January, and was given a week-long course of antibiotics to stave off infection.
“I got rid of all the magnet toys after this,” Paige admitted.
“He is autistic, but he’s quite high functioning and he knows what he’s doing, he knows right from wrong [but] he’s just made a mistake and unfortunately it was one that could have cost him a lot.”
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To ensure no other family goes through the same experience, Paige is bravely sharing Rhiley’s story, adding: “I don’t want other kids or parents going through that.
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“When he did it, I thought it was just him, he’s just been silly and done it, but the surgeon said they see this all the time.
“Magnets aren’t toys and they shouldn’t be sold as toys.
“My message to other parents is to just put them in the bin, don’t buy them in the first place. I don’t care how nice they look and how many children ask for them because they’re ‘cool’, they’re just not worth it. The surgeon said that if Rhiley hadn’t told me that day that he’d swallowed the magnets, they could’ve clashed and ripped his bowel, and he could have ended up with sepsis.
“Rhiley was lucky, but some kids aren’t and won’t be.
“I’m not sure why he told me, he wasn’t in any pain, I just thank God he did.
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“He’s taken all of his magnets out of his room now and he won’t entertain them [because it] was a really traumatic lesson for both of us.”
Katrina Phillips – Chief Executive of the Child Accident Prevention Trust – said: “Rhiley was lucky to be treated so quickly and avoid more serious injury [as] we’ve heard of increasing numbers of children swallowing magnets and we know doctors are worried.
“If you look online, you’ll find lots of magnetic toys but the trouble is, there’s no way to tell if they are safe or 10 times stronger than the legal limit [and] many parents assume that, if they can buy something, it must be safe.
“Paige is doing a great service for other families by speaking out about these hidden dangers.”
Kennedy News & Media
What are the risks of swallowing magnetic balls?
If a child swallows small magnetic balls, magnets effectively burn holes in their intestines or bowels.
The magnets stick together internally and through organs and tissues, and can cut off blood supply causing tissue to die.
They are much more complex than button batteries to extract.
The child will need emergency surgery, then, depending on the severity of the injuries, they may need numerous operations, bowel resection and time in paediatric intensive care.
You can find more information and advice via the Child Accident Prevention Trust here.
You can also join in Paige’s fight to ban the sale of magnet toys and ball magnets by showing your support and signing her petition on change.org here.
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Yorkshire Tea is Manchester’s ‘favourite’ brand of teabags, according to new data
Danny Jones
The Great British debate of which teabag is best is one that will rage on for millennia, that’s just the way it is, but according to new data, it sounds like we might at least have an answer to which brand makes for Manchester’s favourite brew.
It won’t be a surprise to many of you and we can certainly confirm it on our end but the one and only Yorkshire Tea looks to have taken the cuppa crown when it comes not only to Manchester’s preferred teabag but seemingly the best-loved in Britain as a whole.
This is according to numbers pulled by local firm, TonerGiant. The Atherton-based ink and toner suppliers decided a poll around the office wasn’t enough and instead chose to turn their knowledge of the market and consumer trends into a bit of online research.
At the end of the day, tea has got to be the most important of all office supplies, surely?
According to the stats, Yorkshire Tea is Manchester’s favourite brand of tea bags. (Credit: Yorkshire Tea)
Using data from trusted online source Statista, which nailed down the top 25 teabag brands in the UK, each make was then ranked in relation to its average monthly searches via Google Keyword Planner to reveal that Yorkshire Tea was clearly the top dog.
With roughly 390 searches per month in Manchester alone, compared to PG Tips as the next best (260), it seems us Mancs have to concede at least one thing to our fellow Northern county: Yorkshire makes a bloody good brew.
The Roses rivalry raged for centuries but if there’s one thing that brings us together, it’s a good cuppa.
In terms of other tea brands that came in high on the leaderboard, Pukka Tea (170), Twinings (140)and Teapigs (90) made up the rest of the top five most-searched tea brands in Greater Manchester. It’s also interesting to see how those figures looked when extrapolated nationwide. Here’s the full ranking:
Rank
Tea
Average UK monthly searches
1
Yorkshire Tea
27,100
2
PG Tips
18,100
3
Pukka Tea
14,800
4
Twinings
12,100
5
Teapigs
8,100
6
Whittards Tea
6,600
7
Tetley
4,400
8
Clipper Tea
4,400
9
Lipton Tea
3,600
10
Barrys Tea
3,600
11
Thompsons Tea
1,300
12
Typhoo
1,300
13
Taylors Tea
1,300
14
M&S Tea
1,300
15
Tesco Tea
1,000
16
Tick Tock Tea
880
17
Sainsbury’s Tea
720
18
Lyons Tea
720
19
Asda Tea
590
20
Aldi Tea
590
21
Waitrose Tea
590
22
Lidl Tea
480
23
Morrisons Tea
320
24
Bewleys Tea
90
25
Cafedirect Tea
40
Few of these on here we’ve never heard of. Taste test, anyone?
While Yorkshire Tea was found to be Manchester’s and the nation’s favourite, Belfast was the only UK city where Yorkshire Tea didn’t take the top spot. Instead, it was Irish-owned Barry’s Tea that came out as their favourite – we definitely need to hold a ‘brew-off’ between the two. The Hoot, you up for it?
As for supermarket’s own-brand offerings, out of the eight options on the list, Marks and Spencer’s teabags were found to be the most popular, closely followed by Tesco and then Sainsbury’s.
Commenting on the findings, TonerGiant’s Stuart Deavall said: “With so many office workers opting for tea to get through the day, it’s no surprise that the UK has a day dedicated to the drink.
“In light of National Tea Day on Sunday, 21 April, our new data shows that Yorkshire Tea is the nation’s favourite, with over 27,000 Brits searching every month… We can expect many Brits to be celebrating in style this Sunday, no doubt with a mug of Yorkshire tea in hand”. Speaking of, anyone fancy a brew?…
Featured Images — Yorkshire Tea/Rumman Amin (via Unsplash)
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Manchester palaeontologist unearths bones of what may be the largest known marine reptile
Emily Sergeant
A Manchester-based palaeontologist has unearthed the bones of what may be the largest known marine reptile.
This new identification is a crucial part of a fascinating eight-year long discovery journey.
It all started when a seasoned fossil collector named Paul de la Salle found a giant jawbone on Lilstock Beach, near Bridgewater in Somerset, back in May 2016, and then father and daughter, Justin and Ruby Reynolds from Devon, found the first pieces of a second jawbone and another giant bone while searching for fossils on the beach at Blue Anchor, also in Somerset, in May 2020.
And now, a palaeontologist at the University of Manchester (UoM) Dr Dean Lomax, has identified the fossilised remains of the second gigantic jawbone that measures more than two metres long.
Experts have identified these bones as belonging to the jaws of a new species of enormous ichthyosaur – which is a type of prehistoric marine reptile – and astonishing estimations suggest the oceanic titan would have been more than 25-metres long.
Dr Lomax has been working together with Justin and Ruby Reynolds, along with Paul de la Salle and several family members, since the father-daughter duo first contacted them about their groundbreaking discovery in 2020.
A Manchester palaeontologist has unearthed bones of what may be the largest known marine reptile / Credit: UoM
“I was amazed by Justin and Ruby’s find,” Dr Lomax commented.
“In 2018, my team and Paul de la Salle studied and described Paul’s giant jawbone, and we had hoped that one day another would come to light.”
He explained that Justin and Ruby’s new specimen was “more complete and better preserved” than the first find, and that he “became very excited” at the chance to learn more following their discovery.
As mentioned, the Manchester-based research team, led by Dr Lomax, revealed that the jaw bones belong to a new species of giant ichthyosaur that would’ve been about the size of a blue whale, and they have called the new genus and species Ichthyotitan severnensis – which means ‘giant fish lizard of the Severn’.
The bones – which represent the very last of their kind – are around 202 million years old, and date back to the end of the Triassic Period in a time known as the Rhaetian.
During this time, the gigantic ichthyosaurs swam the seas while the dinosaurs walked on land.
The University of Manchester, where Dr Dean Lomax works as a palaeontologist / Credit: UoM
Ichthyotitan is not the world’s first giant ichthyosaur, but the discoveries by Paul, and Justin and Ruby, are said to be “unique among those known to science”, as they appear roughly 13 million years after their latest geologic relatives – including Shonisaurus sikanniensis from British Columbia in Canada, and Himalayasaurus tibetensis from Tibet in China.
Speaking on the confirmation of the bones’ identification this week, Dr Lomax said: “This research has been ongoing for almost eight years.
“It is quite remarkable to think that gigantic, blue whale-sized ichthyosaurs were swimming in the oceans around what was the UK during the Triassic Period.
Emily Sergeant -
9th February 2021 
