LEHI, Utah — It’s an everyday item you’d find in your car fob or your toy box. But for one Salem family, their daughter’s interaction with a button battery ended up causing a serious trip to the hospital this past weekend.
Erick Valenzuela and McKenzie Thompson were looking to enjoy a Friday night out together.
“We were getting ready to go on a date,” Thompson said.
Thompson said she was trying to fix the car seat for her one-year-old, Veya, when she saw her daughter playing with what looked like a coin.
“Literally 30 seconds later I saw her choking and not breathing and I started doing back blows,” Thompson said.
Thompson said the back blows got her daughter breathing again. But she still knew something was wrong.
“She was screaming, telling me to come downstairs,” said Valenzuela. “We called [911] right away.”
Veya was rushed to the hospital in Spanish Fork, where doctors found that she’d in fact swallowed a battery. She then had to be flown to Primary Children’s Hospital in Lehi.
“I had to drive over here from Spanish Fork while they flew in the helicopter and I was just praying the whole way,” Valenzuela said.
Dr. Laurie Baumann, a pediatric surgeon at Primary Children’s Hospital, said a timely reaction like theirs is critical in these cases.
“What happens is when the button battery gets stuck in the esophagus, secretions of the liquid that are naturally in the esophagus can activate the battery, and so the battery actually burns the tissue,” Baumann said.
Veya experienced these burns and continues to depend on a feeding tube days later.
Baumann said ingested objects are a frequent issue that comes through their doors, particularly around the holidays when children get new toys.
“It’s really important to understand that these need to be stored in a safe, secure environment,” Baumann said.
As Veya recovers and prepares to leave the hospital, Valenzuela wants to take his own steps to show other families how dangerous these batteries can be.
“When she cries, it just kind of breaks my heart a little bit,” Valenzuela said. “My goal is, this weekend, to do a long jog, almost like a marathon. Just to spread awareness on small objects and the big impacts they can have on kids.”
His route isn’t set yet, but he wants to share it so that anyone who wants to join can tag along.
Loved ones of Veya and the family have also put together a fundraiser to support them through this recovery process. If you’d like to help out, click this link to learn more.