Investigations begin into safety of Magnetix toys

By Scott Files

Published on March 20, 2006

In a recent Seattle, Wash. case, a 5-year-old child was hospitalized in intensive care after ingesting a magnetic toy. The King County Medical Examiner sent a warning to other parents saying that children should not be allowed to play with these types of toys.

The warning was issued just after a lawsuit was filed by a Redmond family who lost their 22-month-old son last November after he swallowed several aspirin-sized magnets. Their son became ill in late November and was taken to Evergreen Hospital Medical Center where he later died. An autopsy revealed that he had ingested two of the magnetic cylinders that had pinched his intestines shut. The magnets caused his intestine to tangle, rupture and turn gangrenous.

The child's parents, Kenneth and Penny Sweet, said that the toys manufacturer, Rose Art Industries of Livingston, N.J. had been too slow to make the toys safer or stop their production altogether. Their lawsuit, filed in King County Superior Court, asks for unspecified monetary damages and an injunction to stop production and distribution of the toy.

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