"My daughter who swallowed a button battery."

On a Sunday at 4. 30pm my daughter swallowed a 3v button battery, around the size of a 10p piece. We were instructed by the opertator at 111 to go into a&e within the hour, which we did.

Upon arriving we were seen by a triage nurse and my daughter was sent for an X-ray, she had an X-ray from the side of her stomach which confirmed the battery. We had a 3 hour wait until a surgeon called back from the Royal Victoria hospital after reviewing the X-rays and instructed us to go home and come back in the morning for another X-ray to see if the battery was making progress moving down. We returned at 9am the following morning and she another X-ray, This time the X-ray was taken straight on, the Dr seemed confused as to why they had x-rayed her from the side the day before and from straight on the day after as he couldn’t tell if the battery was making it’s way down. We were then instructed that she had been x-rayed too soon after the incident and we were to return on Tuesday at 4. 30 (48 hours after the incident) with still no sign of the battery we returned on the Tuesday at 4. 30 for another X-ray which to our delight we couldn’t see. We were slightly concerned as we hadn’t seen the battery pass and I had been very careful to check every nappy thoroughly for peace of mind. The Dr presumed the battery must have either passed without our knowing or it was further down, near the rectum because it couldn’t be seen on the X-ray. We left hospital not entirely satisfied but felt we need to put some trust into the Dr’s.

On Friday I returned to the a&e department concerned that I still hadn’t seen the battery pass, after waiting for an hour we spoke to a nurse who felt my daughters stomach and asked if she had been feeling ok within herself. Which she had. I strongly expressed my concern that I hadn’t seen it pass, after all I was the one pulling apart her poo for the last 5 days.

She went away to speak to the Dr we had been dealing with and to check over the previous X-rays, returning 15 minutes later she told me that she “felt confident it had passed” and that “ you should really stop sifting through her poos now” they felt it was unnecessary to X-ray her again. So I left feeling very dismissed and patronised, and worried as I still hadn’t come across a battery!

At around 8. 30 pm that evening I received a call from a surgeon at the Royal Victoria infirmary asking for some information re my daughter X-rays. The surgeon phoned Durham hospital requesting my daughters latest scan that she had on the Tuesday and called me back to tell us that Durham had in fact only X-rayed a part of my daughters stomach missing the top of it and the bottom. Later discovering the battery was actually in the top corner of the stomach which couldn’t be seen in the X-ray because they failed to X-ray that part. We were instructed to attend the RVI the following morning at 9am for yet another X-ray to check wether it was still there or not. Low and behold there was the battery in full view.

Because of the battery’s position they decided not to do any surgery and let it come out naturally as it was in the colon and making its way down. My daughter recently passed the button battery which is black and started to corrode. If this battery got stuck in the stomach and Durham failed to pick it up or even X-ray her days later to confirm it was out when I was expressing my concerns it could have been a very serious situation. I feel let down by Durham hospital, I looked to them for reassurance and got nothing but made to feel like an over paranoid Mum.

Thank goodness the RVI was on the ball and called to check on the situation. My daughter is only 2 and in my opinion far too young to be taking any chances.