Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Ed Yeates Reporting A three-year-old girl visiting her grandma in Orem is going to have to stay longer than expected. She swallowed four small batteries, and right now, two are still inside her.
Indigo, from Winnemucca, Nevada is as cute as a button, but she's got her parents pulling their hair out trying to keep her from swallowing all sorts of things.
Indigo Guilbert and her sister wandered into a room and found some batteries her grandma uses in a hearing aid. Though they were in a packet and each battery had a protective tab, that didn't stop this little gal.
Carol Coleman, Indigo's Grandma: "I put a lock on my closet door, which they opened and opened the desk and found them and got into 'em."
According to Mom, this is not the first time. Indigo is pretty ingenious when it comes to getting into things.
Margaret Guilbert, Indigo's Mother: "She drank lamp oil at 18-months old. She has been into Tylenol, vitamins, food coloring."
Carol Coleman: "The lamp oil had a childproof top on it. She got into that. And she got the childproof Tylenol lid off."
The list goes on. In fact, Margaret knows the regional poison control number by heart, and likewise.
Carol Coleman: "Poison Control knows Margaret by her first name (laughs)."
An x-ray taken Thursday afternoon shows three of the batteries were located in her digestive tract; one was still in the stomach. A picture taken last night about 6:00 shows the four batteries clumped together in the large intestine."
So it was off to Orem's Community Hospital's E.R. again this afternoon. We tagged along. While in E.R., she passed two of the four batteries. Dr. Elmo Gruwell showed us how one of the two already showed signs of corrosion.
Elmo Gruwell, M.D., IHC Emergency Physician: "The major concern is they'll either break down because of the digestive juices and they corrode the battery, and they'll start to leak."
Margaret, who has a unique situation with Indigo, is now going to put all hazardous materials in tackle boxes with combination locks. Her advice to other mothers -- if kids see it or see where you put it, they'll try to get it.
For now, it's wait another 24 hours to see if the last two batteries pass through. If they don't, Indigo may be off to Primary Children's Hospital Monday to have them surgically removed.
