LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Two-year-old Reese Hamsmith died Thursday morning after weeks of surgery and treatment for swallowing a battery in November.
Reese suffered burns to his neck, esophagus and vocal cords.
The girl will be remembered as “17 months old,” her family said.
There was a remote control on the floor, with the battery door open, which was the idea for Trista Hamsmith that her daughter Reese, who was coughing, could have swallowed the battery in that remote control.
Hamsmiths took his daughter to the emergency room at Lubbock University Medical Center, where an x-ray confirmed their fears.
They could see that he had swallowed a battery of buttons, but he did not know the extent of the damage.
Dr. Thomas McGill, a pediatric surgeon and medical technician in Texas, told KCBD “Batteries (when swallowed) should be removed as soon as possible.”
He adds that the damage is obvious when you use endoscopy to see the battery in your throat.
“Many times, what you see is that the mucosa is completely black, as if you were frying a yolk,” he said.
Trista and her husband moved Reese from UMC to Texas Children’s in Houston for several operations to repair the damage.
Unfortunately, the girl died on Thursday morning.
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