Mahmoud Kafrawi - Kuwait
The Kuwaiti Ministry of Health, along with the Association of Pediatric Surgeons, have again mobilized to counter the spread of the magnetic beads game, or what can be called, according to specialized doctors, a lethal "bullet".
According to the head of pediatric surgery at Ibn Sina Hospital, one of the most important specialized surgery hospitals in Kuwait, Dr. Ismail Taqi, is the beginning of paying attention to the danger of this game for the year 2010, which saw its beginning on the Kuwaiti scene and the subsequent presence of a small number of children estimated at two or three They swallowed the beads, which required medical intervention.
Taqi adds that during the following years, the number of children who swallowed this magnetic beads began to increase until 2017, about 20 cases, which was considered a phenomenon called for strong action to face them, especially after the registration of cases of children between 8 and 10 years of age, They swallow them to enter in a challenge with their peers while playing, as well as another number of children under four.
According to Taqi's assertions, the gravity of the game is that the magnet of the bead is 15 times stronger than the ordinary magnet. Its granules, which enter the stomach and intestines, stick together strongly, making it penetrate the wall of the intestines and stomach leaving holes exactly like those caused by bullets inside Belly.
Disruptive
According to the head of the Kuwaiti Society of Pediatric Surgeons Dr. Abdullah Rajab, the creation of these holes causes the tissue to be damaged and the child is poisoned if the surgical intervention is delayed due to the discharge of the intestines and the intestines to the rest of the body. A number of European countries years ago to the failure of vital organs and death.
The problems of the strong magnetic nature of the beads do not stop at the limit of the holes, causing the creation of another problem in the medical treatment, whether through the endoscope or surgery reference to stick the same magnet with medical tools, which prompted the doctors of Ibn Sina Hospital to develop a surgical method based on pulling magnets to excess And the removal of the worm to reduce the number of holes and holes in the intestines.
Early family perception of ingestion of the pill contributes to the recovery of the disease without complications or risks compared to the delay of two or three days.
There was an urgent need to communicate with some pediatric surgeons in the neighboring countries of the Gulf as well as in Western countries to see the extent of this phenomenon and to know the paths that have been taken to reduce their seriousness. Two steps have already been taken. The first is awareness through the media, When they receive the certificates of passing their children to study in kindergarten and primary.
The second track was in coordination with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in the country to face the spread of the game in the shops and commercial complexes, which resulted in a decrease in the number of cases requiring surgical intervention in 2018, reaching less than 6 cases were all children whose children got the game through Or other cases where the game existed and was neglected by the family for a period before the child can play it again.
New cases
In the past six weeks, the Pediatric Surgery Department has recorded three cases of ingestion of magnetic beads, which prompted the doctors to find themselves returning to the supermarket and some cooperatives to sell them again.
The Ministry of Health's Office of the Child Protection, according to the head of the office, Dr. Mona Al-Khawari, told Al-Jazeera Net to address the Ministry of Commerce to exercise its supervisory role and control such counter-shops.
Rajab asserts that the accumulation of the expertise of doctors in Kuwait has contributed greatly to reduce the complications, pointing out that at the beginning of the discovery years ago, the toddler when dealing with it is to wait until the piece of the body out during the process of output as normal as happens if swallowing a coin or other metals , But the discovery of magnetic nature later necessitated the need for rapid intervention and convince parents of the importance of surgery.
The doctors do not limit their awareness to their parents. They stress the importance of educating their colleagues in clinics and accident departments about the rapid transfer of such cases to specialists, and not to wait as they did in the past in order to preserve the lives of these children.