Like many bizarre children’s crazes before them, Fidget Spinners have quickly taken over school playgrounds the world over.
And while teachers are struggling to keep their students from distraction by the insanely popular devices, parents are beginning to worry they could be downright dangerous.
American mum Kelly Rose Joniec was driving her daughter Britton home from swimming on Saturday when she heard an “odd retching noise” coming from the back seat.
“Looking back in the mirror, I saw her face turning red and drool pouring from her mouth – she could utter noises but looked panicked so I immediately pulled over,” Joniec wrote in a Facebook post on Monday.
We had a pretty eventful Saturday.On the way home from a fun swim meet, I heard Britton make an odd retching noise in…
Posted by Kelly Rose Joniec on Monday, 15 May 2017
“She pointed to her throat saying she’d swallowed something.”
Britton explained she had been trying to clean part of her fidget spinner in her mouth and, somehow, swallowed it.
Joniec couldn’t determine if was lodged in her daughter’s windpipe or oesophagus but after the Heimlich manoeuvre failed to dislodge it, resolved to call an ambulance.
At the Texas Children’s Hospital, an X-ray showed the spinner part well and truly stuck in the child’s oesophogas.
It had to be surgically removed.