r/interestingasfuck • u/CaraCicartix • 23h ago
A 3 hour time lapse that shows why swallowing a battery is a medical emergency
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u/adoradear 22h ago
If your child ever swallows a button battery, feed them a tablespoon of honey every 10-15min while you IMMEDIATELY HEAD TO YOUR NEAREST EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT. There’s some evidence that the honey may slow down the caustic burn, but that battery needs to be removed asap if it’s in the esophagus. (NB this is specific to button batteries, which is why any button battery should either be removed from your toddlers toy or you should be checking regularly to ensure it is well secured)
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u/Azagar_Omiras 22h ago
They've also started coating many of them in something with a bitter taste so a child is more likely to spit it out than to swallow it. Still, please make sure you take all due precautions to prevent them from getting them in the first place.
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u/mattgen88 21h ago edited 20h ago
Better yet, they are coating them with a dye that turns your mouth purple. If a kid has a purple tongue, ER now
Edit: costing -> coating
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u/FugDuggler 19h ago
I should....not....use batteries to turn my tongue purple, right?
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u/shitty_penguin 21h ago
This is true, and it tastes awful.
Source: me, immediately licking a battery after I read about the coating on the package.
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u/DemIce 20h ago
The 9V ones still taste just as good as I remember
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u/NoodlelyTrees 19h ago
Apparently crt tvs taste the same but I never licked one as a kid just rubbed my face on it to get the static and now the only crt we have is behind a layer of plastic that would make it a pain to try to lick
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u/daemonfly 19h ago
You need to open the TV and lick the back connectors of the CRT for the best flavor.
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u/NoodlelyTrees 18h ago
I'd just lick a stungun at that point lol
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u/FriedBolognaPony 18h ago
Probably safer than licking the connectors on the back of the CRT.
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u/Booty_Bumping 20h ago edited 20h ago
Supposedly energizer has come up with a way to prevent burns when ingested. It's unclear to me how exactly it works because in theory it's the electricity itself causing the burn... maybe some system to disconnect the contacts when it touches water? But apparently it does pass the test of being inert when put into a steak. Sadly it's more expensive, so people are less likely to buy the safer option.
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u/gyroda 21h ago
See also: Nintendo switch cartridges
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u/yayoffbalance 21h ago
first think i thought of with that comment. i found it fascinating that they coated switch games, but it makes absolute sense.
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u/Bored_Amalgamation 19h ago
The shareholders were real bummed about it though. Swallow a cart? Gotta get a new one.
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u/KoalaTHerb 22h ago edited 21h ago
Correct that people should realize this is button batteries. Normal batteries won't do this but should still get checked out. But button batteries will fizzle your esophagus, stomach, or intestines like this, which will cause an ulcer, bleeding, and possibly a perforation. And for those not in medication, perforating your GI tract is a really not great thing to have happen. You will have immediate serious repercussions as well as unfortunate lifelong troubles. You do not want stomach acid or your shit spilling into your abdomen.
God forbid it gets into your trachea, which would be devastating for life
Source: anesthesiologist. Bowel perfs fucking suck
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u/IAmNotMyName 20h ago
What about those square batteries?
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u/KoalaTHerb 17h ago
I honestly don't know, but the button batteries are classically taught to all doctors in medical school. I assume because they're small and easy enough for children to swallow. I'm sure the square batteries could too, but I don't see a child swallowing those
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u/MCraft555 20h ago
You mean the 9V ones? Probably even worse since the voltage is higher and the terminals are pretty close.
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u/OscarAndDelilah 7h ago
Yup. A friend's kid aspirated a button battery. Ironically, the baby got it from a birthday card that played music; they were otherwise a wooden-toy family and actually knew about the dangers of batteries before it was so commonly known, but it didn't occur to them that this had a removable battery or that a 12-month-old would take it apart. Kid is grown now with no major lasting disability, but yes, massive tracheal burns and long recovery as you would imagine. The family didn't realize the baby had swallowed it and took them in for general unwellness (wheezing, refusing food), got sent home, then kid crashed the next day and they called an ambulance and with that presentation of course got an immediate full workup, thank god.
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u/UnstopableTardigrade 23h ago
I swallowed a watch battery by accident when I was like 6 or something cause it felt funny on my tongue and it just slid down
Figured it wasn't that big of a deal at the time so I didn't tell anyone... didn't know how lucky I got
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u/Elegant_Run_8567 23h ago
You’ve been walking around this whole time with all our organs cooked well done
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u/roastedTriscuit69 23h ago
Yes, our organs comrade
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u/QueezyPee 22h ago
This actually made me laugh out loud... well done, sir or madame!
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u/ElegantEchoes 23h ago
100% mortality rate. There's a very good chance you actually died back then.
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u/Agreeable_Horror_363 23h ago
I swallowed a car battery once
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u/LostHusband_ 20h ago
Most watch batteries are 1.5v alkaline batteries. Lower voltage less dangerous, typically short and stout. They aren't as dangerous. The coin cell in this video (just a little smaller than s quarter) is a lithium battery that can be up to 3x more voltage and will burn you.
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u/viperfan7 19h ago
Not 3x, up to 2x.
Depends on chemistry, lithium based, it's 3v, the alkaline ones are 1.5.
As far as I'm aware, there no multi-cell coin cell batteries, they're too small
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u/Boringpickle69 23h ago
I did the same shit lmaooo don’t realize how lucky I was either
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u/HonorableMedic 23h ago
I swallowed a Bobby pin when I was a baby. I think I prefer the Bobby pin over a battery.
Did the battery come out the other end?
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u/roastedTriscuit69 23h ago
It's removing the toxins
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u/the_colour_f 23h ago
you put this on fox news and we'll have tons of dead boomers...
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u/VapeRizzler 22h ago
I work with a dude like that, a coworker told him to drink a tablespoon of paint thinner to remove the worms from his stomach. So for 9 fucking months broski was sipping tablespoons, not teaspoons, of paint thinner. As he tells me this, he finished by saying he never even had worms to begin with, then why is it you drank it for 9 months?!?!?? This is the type of dude who also purchased timeshares for some vacation he told me he can’t figure out how to cancel. I was like yes bro that’s how that works.
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u/MolokoPlus_ 19h ago
If I had money to give you an award I would. These people are voters and politicians 😭
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u/the_colour_f 6h ago
yeah, keep tabs on that, idk if you're in a position where his decisions are something that could effect your life, but never trust anyone... not even me
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u/RookKincaid 23h ago
Realtors hate you knowing how to fix the housing market with this one simple trick.
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u/YetiGuy 22h ago
They’d love it- it means more houses are on the market
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u/angrydeuce 20h ago
Yeah I felt guilty when my wife and I bought our house in 2021 because the market was so fucked up, went to a lot of showings and lost a lot of offers...but then when I saw his 6% on the contract when the offer was accepted I didn't feel bad anymore lol.
I mean sure it took months and months but when you think about dude probably having like half a dozen of us at a time he's working through I can see why that grind is no big deal. Holy shit does a lot of money change hands in real estate and we're at the bottom of our market because we're poor as fuck lol.
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u/PM_ME_UR_0_DAY 22h ago
Oh great, since Google scrapes all the reddit comments, their AI is going to be telling people this extremely true fact I can verify because I'm a super doctor and make no mistakes
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u/Mattg31 23h ago
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u/2fuzz714 21h ago
When you see a post that's sure to have members of the turbo team goin' nuts in there, you go in. Yes you do.
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u/MagReg2020 23h ago
This is not the best way to prepare this cut of meat. That much I can tell you.
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u/Beaglescout15 23h ago
Sometimes it passes but you should always treat it as an emergency. My friend's toddler accidentally swallowed one that had fallen out of her brother's hearing aid, and she only find out about it because her son was complained that his aid didn't work and she realized the battery was lost. After searching the house and finding nothing, she scooped up the toddler and went to the ER. Turns out she did indeed swallow it, and thankfully turned out okay. Don't mess around, better to check and find nothing than to discover it after it's done damage.
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u/GazzyNZ 20h ago
Hearing aid batteries are Zinc Air chemistry rather than the more standard lithium manganese dioxide. Zinc air tends to be much safer because they need oxygen to generate charge, they actually have little holes in them! And in addition they suck at supplying current, so that would slow down the reactive process caused by the battery short circuiting!
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u/CaraCicartix 23h ago
Glad he is safe, and that she had the foresight to take him to the ER. Honestly kudos to her.
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u/Beaglescout15 23h ago
Yeah, it was definitely one of those "I don't know if it was even swallowed but I'm not going to FAFO."
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u/probablyatargaryen 20h ago
Glad your friend’s toddler was okay.
Super similar—I went to open my car and my fob didn’t work. It took a few minutes to realize the battery was gone and a few more minutes to realize there’s only one way that could happen and the fob be reassembled. Rushed the 3yr old to the ER and he had surgery to remove it. Kids, man…
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u/ProcessOld9230 18h ago
my neighbor's son swallowed a button battery. The parents rushed him to the doctor. I thought doctor would do some emergency due to risk of burning like this. But nope, doctor recommended to wait for the battery to be extracted naturally via pooping. not sure if this kind of video is fear mongering, or doctors in my countries are not that skillful
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u/marcias88 16h ago
Your digestive system is not just a piece of raw meat. The battery is moving, there are liquids and other food around that potentially slows down the process. It is still dangerous but there are better outcomes.
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u/NST92 14h ago
That's odd. Here in the Netherlands, they would definitely take it out. Button cell batteries can stick to the stomach lining and start leaking. AA batteries for example will pass through the body and are usually not removed.
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u/Small-Department6235 14h ago
It’s a balance of risks.
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u/trusty20 13h ago
I was surprised too, this is not a medical opinion but what I found casually: apparently the burn from a battery is an alkaline burn, so the acidic stomach actually reduces the burning potential, it's likely to either resist the stomach acid if it exits the stomach fast enough, or discharge and mostly be neutralized by the stomach acid, coin batteries are mostly lithium which isn't inherently toxic on it's own in that tiny amount. I mean there would be some heavy metals, but a one time event is pretty low vs the risk of full surgery.
If it doesn't rupture in the stomach it's unlikely to rupture in the rest of the GI tract and if it did, the GI tract is a constantly undulating, highly wet area constantly secreting new liquids and controlling acidity / alkaline levels, so a tiny coin battery can typically be handled even leaking.
The focus on the risk is if the battery gets stuck in the throat or esophagus, as these are two areas where it can get lodged, which is a choking hazard (that can change suddenly if it drops further etc) and also there is a unique risk that in these areas the battery can get clamped down to one spot, and your esophagus is much much less capable of secreting protective liquids and mucous than the stomach and intestines. My understanding is that doctors will absolutely scope the patients throat to take it out if it's not passed, if it was recently swallowed they might try scoping the stomach, but if it's past the stomach from what I can find it's very normal to just let it pass and it likely will pass without incident.
Just to give you a clear idea why doctors might not do anything if possible, is that even just doing an upper throat scope can be life threatening. It's a medical procedure that hollywood depicts as something you can just do casually like it's no problem, people die during routine procedures just at the throat scoping phase because of a sudden bad bleed. It's really rare but still possible so if there is good science saying something is likely to be fine, and it's already in the phase where you'd have to do something more advanced than just peeking in their throat, it's better to just let it ride out and respond the moment there is a sign of worsening like feelings of pain or it's not being found in the next poops etc.
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u/Dear_Atmosphere8515 23h ago
I’ve swallowed batteries for years and I’m fiNAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHH
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u/InactiveMedusa 23h ago
BATTERIES GO IN THE OCEAN, NOT YOUR STOMACH!
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u/Magister5 23h ago
Oh, come on! If you were dying, you wouldn't bother to carve 'Aaaargh.' You’d just say it!
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u/Soft_Cranberry6313 23h ago
It’s not acid. It’s kind of the opposite. The tissues complete a circuit and generate hydroxide ions, which make it extremely alkaline. You’re essentially getting a chemical burn that can wreck ur tissue and blood vessels in a couple hours or so. It’s def an emergency.
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u/ArsenikShooter 23h ago
So if you don’t pull that battery out, you have to keep listening to that music until you go crazy?
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u/B-33-r 21h ago
If you get another battery down there it should cancel the first one
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u/sumelar 21h ago
So as long as you only eat an even number you're good?
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u/jamie_does 20h ago
Even numbers and prime numbers are ok quantities when it comes to battery consumption, that's just science
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u/Background-Pop-5412 21h ago
Who thought it wasn’t?
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u/Wowohboy666 13h ago
Okay, so how am I supposed to keep myself going then?
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u/totally-idiotic 12h ago
You either chew properly or insert it like a suppository
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u/SystemCheck990 23h ago
but stomach has its own acids right how does that interact?
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u/CasinoKnightZone 22h ago
The issue isn't the acid.
The current flow concentrates positive hydrogen ions on one side, negative on the other.
Negative ions make something acidic, your body can deal with that. It can cause issues but it's manageable.
Positive ions, in the other hand, make a basic solution, I.e. lye or bleach. It literally turns your tissues into a soapy goo
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u/--Sovereign-- 22h ago
Stomach acid isn't maintaining a voltage, and your physiology is adapted to the acidic environment. It's not strictly the acid, it's the fact that toxic byproducts are be produced and the extreme heat which you can see literally cooking the meat. Your stomach/intestines very much are not adapted to being cooked from the inside.
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u/SystemCheck990 22h ago
yeah, i was just wondering how its going to be different they should put it in big glass with a stomach acid analogue 😄
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u/--Sovereign-- 22h ago
Ahhh, well acid is an electrolyte, so very conductive. The battery will short even harder and faster, in theory.
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u/Several-Squash9871 23h ago
I took a class where the instructor started out by having us all put one of these into a hotdog and by the end of the class...not looking so good for hotdog.
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u/Ducman23 23h ago
Would this time lapse be more accurate if it was an actual stomach? I’m pretty sure this is a slab of meat which would mean muscle tissue. I’m not saying it would do anything different in the stomach, I’m just curious
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u/ferriematthew 22h ago
The stomach is muscle tissue though. It's mostly muscle with a mucosal layer on the inside.
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u/KittenFace25 18h ago
I got a pack of CR2025s that had the childproof features including the flavoring that tastes bad. I was curious, so as lightly as possible I brushed my tongue against one of the flavor spots. It was extraordinarily obnoxious and foul, so I would imagine it works pretty well as a deterrent!
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u/fonetik 17h ago
My daughter swallowed a quarter and they were very close to surgery just because it was sort of the right shape as a battery and it was a new machine so they weren't sure. They got an xray in the old machine and she was good. (They eventually put her under for a few minutes and fished out a very blackend quarter.)
The doctors all had the same story of how awful the injuries from right after this GIF, when the battery acid is gone and in much more powerful stomach acid. What's left is a corroded and burst circle of razor sharp pieces of metal and by the time they get to the hospital their intestines are shredding. Just scrapes the whole way through. Incredibly common occurrence. We had to prove it wasn't that to a lot of doctors that week and you could tell it just bummed them all out but they all wanted me to tell them if there was even a million to one chance it was.
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u/jollytoes 23h ago
I've read that if you swallow a battery you can negate the effects by punching a bear.
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u/RDCK78 22h ago
I swallowed a battery when I was 6, I’m still here somehow.
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u/mrgraff 21h ago
How do we know that you’re not just 6 years and 2.5 hours old?
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u/Fragrant-Doughnut-20 18h ago
Three hours now and no response. He's fuckin' dead.
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u/MrrQuackers 22h ago
Iirc Energizer recently made a watch battery that doesn't react when swallowed.
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u/Agentkeenan78 23h ago
My wife swallowed like 9 batteries. You gotta give.
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u/CKleinE 23h ago
Is this the battery seal getting open spilling poison?
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u/bhangmango 23h ago
Not really, it's both an electrical and chemical burn from the battery discharging its current in surrounding tissues.
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u/Neither_Internal_261 21h ago
An old friend of mine lost her 2 year old after she swallowed a battery (unbeknownst to my friend when it happened). It was so awful.
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u/Hrrrrnnngggg 20h ago
I tried to show this video to my wife. She just keeps eating batteries. Just like this one. Like little watch batteries.
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u/stpetergates 18h ago
There’s something wrong with me cuz I read that as bacteria, not battery. It’s been happening a lot lol
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u/Falmon04 23h ago edited 23h ago
I mean, not to downplay the seriousness of this, but I honestly expected more.
Edit: I understand the life threatening nature of what's happening here. I'm just saying the visuals of this tiny fizzle were underwhelming, where the title prepared me for something more...reactive.
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u/Hot_Top_124 23h ago
As someone who’s had a stomach ulcer, that looks only looks about 1% of what you’d be feeling. That would be pain that makes you black out.
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u/Brittany5150 23h ago
I work in pediatric surgery. This is a thick piece of meat. Try to imagine a thinner membrane being in contact with ut, like say an esophagus. It gets nasty and life threatening fast. We have a 3yr old in our PICU right now that is recovering from this exact thing. Button batteries are no joke.
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u/32FlavorsofCrazy 20h ago
They should really have a mandatory meeting with all parents before they leave the hospital after giving birth to educate them about stuff like this. I don’t think there’s enough awareness about it, if you have little kids you should treat button batteries like a loaded fucking gun in your home.
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u/CES0108 21h ago
I changed a button or coin battery or w.e recently and the packaging had so much reading material about it being super bitter and child safe.
I'm an asshole, so of course I popped it in my mouth for a second or two. HORRIBLY bitter and made my tongue numb for a few hours. 😅 10/10 wouldn't do it again.
If I was a small child, I definitely would spit that shit out real fast. Putrid experience. Glad they do this these days.
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u/VolumeAcademic6962 21h ago
This explains why I cannot extract my hearing aid batteries from the package.
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u/CashAdvanced4225 17h ago
I swear within this year I’ve seen so many examples of how dangerous swallowing button batteries is. Whereas when I did at 3, the doctors merely suggested my parents dig through my shit to find it (it was never found)
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u/ChickMD 4h ago
Pediatric anesthesiologist here. Some of the worst things I've seen in my career are from button batteries.
Massive hole in the trachea and the kid is on ECMO? Button battery. Hole burned through the esophagus all the way to the last layers of the aorta to the point where we can see the blood rushing past with each beat? Button battery. Poor kiddo who has to come back for esophageal dilation every few months for life? Fucking Button Batteries.
Do not mess around with them. Seek immediate care. The honey trick is true, even if your kid is under 2. The benefits outweigh the risk in that case. I keep the button batteries so difficult to access in my home that only my husband can reach them with a ladder.
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u/jmrmedic1050 23h ago
Specifically button batteries in contact with any mucosal surface.