"Doctors Informed Me: 'Your Son Swallowed Magnets, He is in Life-Threatening Danger'"

Rachel Dajian will never forget the eve of Purim last year. Those moments turned from joy to panic in an instant. No, she never imagined she would find herself in the hospital on Purim with two hospitalized children, one of whom was in life-threatening danger. Why would she even consider such a possibility?

There were many unexpected events in their difficult story, but let us start from the beginning. "Everything began on Thursday night, exactly a week before Purim," Rachel recalls with a tremble. "Dvir, our youngest, a year and a half old, was vomiting continuously. He could not sleep even for a moment, writhing in discomfort and crying the entire night. We live in the city of Sarcelles, a suburb of Paris, which has a 24-hour medical helpline. When I contacted them, the doctor asked if the child was holding his head. I confirmed. Then he asked if I saw black in his eyes, to which I replied no. Finally, he said there didn't seem to be cause for concern, so I should keep him hydrated and see a doctor in person the next day."

In the Ambulance During Shabbat

The next day was Friday, and Rachel notes that Dvir seemed better. "I was preoccupied with Shabbat preparations and felt confident he was starting to recover, so I decided not to visit the doctor."

Only after lighting the candles did she realize it might have been a mistake, as Dvir began vomiting repeatedly in a very concerning manner. Rachel understood something was seriously wrong, and after the meal, she and her husband decided to call an ambulance.

"It was not an easy decision to call an ambulance on Shabbat, but I knew it was the only option, and thankfully we did. When the ambulance arrived, we experienced a terrifying moment. Until then, Dvir had been in a dark room, and we hadn't seen him closely. But when they brought him into the light, we felt we didn't recognize him. His skin was shiny and tight, and his eyes had a dark look – exactly what the doctors had told us to check two days earlier. It was truly frightening."

Rachel notes that they have five older children, including a child named Nissim, who is one year and three months older than Dvir. Her husband stayed at home with them, while she accompanied Dvir to the hospital. "Only when we arrived at the hospital did I understand the severity of the situation," she recounts. "The nurse who received Dvir was very alarmed, immediately calling for the doctors, and they took him into a room without letting me stay with him. I heard them behind the closed door, calling his name and trying to resuscitate him. I felt as if I would faint. I cried from the depths of my soul and recited Psalms. I was so alone, so worried."

After a long hour, the doctors approached her to explain. They saw something in Dvir's stomach during imaging but could not precisely identify it. They also lacked the equipment to treat such a young child; therefore, they were transferring him to a hospital in central Paris, where an intensive care unit would receive him. He was already sedated and ventilated by then, as the doctors had tried to administer fluids intravenously, but due to the extensive vomiting and fluid loss, his veins had shrunk, and they had to introduce the infusion through the bone. Finally, they transported him by ambulance, with Rachel accompanying him to the specialized children's hospital in Paris.

"Your Son is in Life-Threatening Danger"

Rachel describes feeling like she was in a nightmare as they arrived at the hospital. The doctors who received them seemed very tense as they rushed Dvir directly to the intensive care unit. There, too, she had to wait outside, helpless and alone, for three hours.

At a certain point, a stern-looking doctor came to her and informed her that it turned out her child had swallowed magnets. He asked, "Do you have magnets at home?" "Only at that moment did I realize what was happening. We do have a game with tiny magnets that look like colorful candies. Suddenly, I understood he had likely swallowed them, which gave me some relief. If he swallowed them, we would likely be able to remove them, even if it required surgery. Though unpleasant, at least we knew the cause."

Dvir connected to devices

But then another terrifying thought crossed her mind. "Suddenly, I thought about Nissim, the older child, who is so close to Dvir, and they always misbehave together. I considered the likelihood he was involved in this, and when I voiced this possibility, the doctor said, 'If that's the case, you'll need to bring him here quickly.' Of course, I couldn't do that; I had no way to contact my husband. But I promised myself that once Shabbat ended, we would bring Nissim to the hospital as well."

Another hour passed before the department doors opened, and a doctor stepped out to deliver the most challenging message Rachel had ever heard in her life. "Your son arrived in a very critical condition," she said. "If you had delayed any longer, he might not be with us anymore."

Rachel pauses for a moment, her voice becoming choked. It's clear that recalling these moments is difficult for her. "The doctor went on to explain that they wanted to operate on him, but it wasn't certain how he would respond to the surgery, so I should say goodbye, as he might not be with us afterward."

"Those were the worst moments of my life," she remembers. "I felt like the sky was falling. Dvir was unconscious, and as I accompanied him to surgery, I prayed to Hashem, begging that since these days are the month of Adar, may we change the fate, and may He turn everything for the good. I tried to make a deal with Hashem, saying: 'Take all the merits I have and use them to heal Dvir.' I took on several additional resolutions and continued praying as I sat outside the operating room. I felt Dvir was truly on the scales, and anything could happen. At some point, I ran out of tears. I was so alone...

"Then, after many long hours, Dvir was brought out of the operating room, still sedated and ventilated. The doctors explained that the surgery was successful; they had removed the magnets, but due to the strong magnetic pull, his intestines had twisted and formed actual holes, requiring sections to be cut and reconnected, which would likely necessitate a prolonged recovery."

"To conclude, the doctors gave me the tiny magnets removed from Dvir's stomach, which I keep in a capsule on a shelf as a souvenir. I believe this will always remind me of the miracle we experienced."

A Purim That Wasn't

With the departure of Shabbat, Rachel could finally inform her husband about what happened. "He was truly shocked," she recalls, "especially when I asked him to bring Nissim, our almost three-year-old, to the hospital as well. They both arrived very quickly at the hospital, where it was confirmed that Nissim had indeed participated in the prank, and similar magnets were found in his stomach."

"Nissim actually swallowed more magnets than Dvir," Rachel shares, "but by divine grace, his intestines weren't damaged, so only a simple surgery was needed to remove the magnets one by one. He was hospitalized for four days afterward. For Dvir, things were far more complicated. The swallowing of a foreign object caused widespread infection throughout his blood and body, leading to heart and lung failure."

The magnets Dvir swallowed

"A week after Dvir was initially hospitalized, Purim arrived, and on that exact day, he underwent another surgery. Initially, we were told the operation would be quick, but it turned out the infection was more extensive than anticipated, and the surgery lasted five hours."

Rachel cannot forget that Purim. "Good friends stayed with the children at home, ensuring they had costumes and Purim baskets. Later, they took them to my sister's for a meal. My husband and I felt no Purim spirit. He stayed with Nissim in the children's ward, while I was in intensive care with Dvir. We switched places from time to time. Just before Dvir went into surgery, my husband read me the megillah, but sadly I wasn't in a state to concentrate."

In the second surgery, another part of Dvir's intestines was removed. "There were great miracles, " Rachel says with excitement, "because the removed part was only from the small intestine, whereas the large intestine, thank God, wasn't affected. Other vital organs remained unharmed, and we could finally see a slight smile on the doctors' and nurses' faces. Dvir remained in intensive care, but the medication doses were reduced daily, and we began to sense optimism and hope."

Ten days later, the doctors informed them that intensive care was no longer needed for Dvir, thank God, he was out of danger. "Only afterward did I read his medical file thoroughly and understood the enormous miracle that had occurred," she shares with excitement, "because in cases like his, most children do not recover well, as the issue wasn't just the magnets' ingestion but primarily their dangerous magnetic pull. It was truly a miracle."

However, being released from intensive care didn't signal the end of the story. "Unfortunately, Dvir lost a significant part of his ability during his hospitalization, and we had to take him to rehabilitation so he could relearn everything from scratch. Thus, we remained in the hospital for another four months, celebrating not only Purim but also Passover and Shavuot there."

* * *

Today, a year after that incident, Dvir is thankfully healthy, cheerful, and sweet, with a head full of curls. In a few months, he will celebrate his chalaka and his third birthday. "But the truth is, we should celebrate two birthdays for him," Rachel notes, "because Purim is also his birthday since he was essentially reborn that day. We received him as a true gift."

And I assume the magnet game was thrown directly into the trash...

"Of course. I threw the game out the moment I returned home. But unfortunately, because they are magnets, we continued to find them for a long time afterward, attached to various illogical spots around the house – the legs of chairs, drawer handles, refrigerator – almost everywhere... That's also why I decided to share my story, because I want to warn other parents. There are toys that appear tiny and innocent, and we never think about how damaging they can be, leading to a real life-threatening situation."