An 11-year-old boy endured a two-hour long surgery to remove 26 magnet balls from his penis after he inserted them.
The boy from eastern China suffered pain and bleeding after putting the chain of magnets into his penis out of curiosity.
Doctors performed a cystotomy and successfully removed all 26 magnet balls from the boy’s urinary bladder.
A boy from east China inserted 26 magnet balls into his penis and couldn’t get it out by himself
Doctor found that the chain of magnet balls had split into two columns and stuck at the end of the boy’s urethra
According to Kankanews, the boy, whose name has not been revealed, was sent to Yuying Children’s Hospital in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province.
Dr Wang Yongbiao, paediatric surgeon, told the reporter that he found the magnet balls under the cystoscopy.
‘The balls are now aligned into two columns and got stuck in the posterior urethra area,’ Dr Wang said.
The blockage has caused bleeding, swelling and pain to the 11-year-old.
Dr Wang further explained that the procedure to remove the balls could be tricky due to the small size of the magnets.
‘Each magnet ball has a diameter of three millimetres (0.12 inches) and when they align in two rows, its width doubles up to six millimetres (0.24 inches),’ Dr Wang spoke in the video.
The tiny magnet balls, also known as Buckyballs, are popular among adults and children (left). Dr Wang decided to push the balls into the bladder but it turned into a cluster (right)
Picture showing 15 of the 26 magnet balls Dr Wang had removed from the boy’s bladder
The medical expert decided to push the magnet balls to the boy’s urinary bladder and remove them using forceps to avoid urethral blockage.
Dr Wang attempted to use the cystoscopic forceps to take the tiny objects out one by one.
However, the 26 magnet balls turned into one big cluster in the bladder and could not be separated.
The boy had had to undergo a two-hour cystotomy to remove the magnets.
Dr Wang told the reporter that the magnet balls, also known as Buckyballs, can be dangerous to young children.
‘Children can easily swallow or place the magnet balls into their body parts due to the small size. I had previously dealt with two similar cases in relating to the magnet balls,’ said Dr Wang.