Babies and button batteries don't mix

SALT LAKE CITY -- As babies do, Emmett had been playing with the family DVD remote. When the bite-sized battery fell out the back, he instinctively put it in his mouth and swallowed it. Later, on the day of his first birthday party, baby Emmett woke up with an unusual, concerning fever.

In a series from every parent’s worst nightmare, he started coughing up blood. The parents rushed for medical help and soon found themselves with doctors looking at an X-ray of his tiny frame, and a coin-sized circular disk lodged in his throat.

Three terrifying hours and a surgery later, parents Karla and Michael Rauch of Peoria, Ariz., learned their son’s throat had suffered severe damage from toxic battery acid. It had burned two holes, and he had to have four inches of his esophagus removed.

Since that fateful day in October 2010, Emmett lived in and out of the ICU for nine months, had multiple cases of collapsed lung, and endured 19 surgeries along with almost 200 X-rays.

All this heartache came from one small button battery.

Read the rest of the article here: Babies and button batteries don't mix

Published March 3, 2012 on KSL.com

Author's note: My beautiful friend Karla and her husband Michael nearly lost their sweet a baby to a button battery. I decided to write the story and submit it to the Deseret News. It was published on KSL yesterday and already has had 12, 286 hits!* Please read the article and educate yourself on how to protect the children in your life.

*As of April 2012, the KSL story has had 19, 500+ views. Let's continue to share the message.