A concerned Texas mom is speaking out about the dangers of fidget spinners after her daughter nearly choked to death on one of the popular toy’s small parts.
Kelly Rose Joniec of Houston was on her way home from a swim meet on Saturday when she heard her 10-year-old daughter, Britton, choking in the back seat, she shared in a Facebook post.
Joniec says she looked in her rearview mirror and saw her daughter’s face turning red and drool coming from her mouth. She pulled over and realized that her daughter had swallowed one of the bearings from her fidget spinner.
“She pointed to her throat saying she’d swallowed something, so I attempted Heimlich but there was no resistance,” Joniec wrote. “She said she’d put part of her fidget spinner in her mouth to clean it and somehow swallowed it.”
Joniec attempted the Heimlich maneuver before taking her daughter to a nearby urgent care center. An X-ray revealed that the metal bearing was lodged in the young girl’s esophagus.
“Britton was taken to surgery to endoscopically locate and remove the object. Fortunately we had a positive outcome, but it was pretty scary there for a while…not only because of the initial ingestion, but then the concern about the composition and structure of the object, and finally, the risk with general anesthesia,” Joniec wrote.
A fidget spinner is a three-pronged, palm-sized piece of plastic or metal that spins around a central weighted disc. Marketed as a stress-relieving tool with health benefits, fidget spinners have become popular among school children and have been banned in school across the country.
Joniec hopes parents learn from her family’s scary experience.
“I wish to offer some word of caution to parents,” she warned. “Fidget spinners are the current craze so they are widely distributed. Kids of all ages may be getting them, but not all spinners come with age-appropriate warnings. The bushings pop out easily, so if you have young kids (under 8 yr old) keep in mind that these present a potential choking hazard.”