The
Fiore family was enjoying a beautiful summer evening and decided to fire up the
grill and make hamburgers for dinner.
But
before they knew it, things took an awful turn.
Six-year-old
Anthony starting eating his burger, and within minutes, he was seriously ill.
Anthony’s
mom rushed him to the hospital emergency room and what the doctors found in the
boy’s stomach made her go white.
Now,
she’s warning other parents so that it never happens again.
“It
felt like a needle,” Anthony told the Canadian radio station CBC.
When
the 6-year-old suddenly fell ill, his mom took him to the local hospital, where
doctors discovered that he had swallowed a wire from a metal brush.
The
brushes are common for cleaning grills and most families with barbecues
probably owns one.
“We
knew something was wrong, and he was in extreme pain, because he was crying,”
Anthony’s mom Nadia said. “From the time we had dinner to the time we had
surgery, it was about 12 hours later, because our journey started at the local
hospital, and then we were transported to Sick Kids.”
The
doctors at the first hospital had no way of removing the dangerous, thin metal
wire from the boy’s throat.
Specialists
at the children’s hospital were eventually able to remove the wire stuck in
Anthony’s throat by performing advanced surgery.
Then,
the important thing was that Anthony didn’t develop an infection from bacteria
on the wire.
Apparently,
it wasn’t the first time the surgeons had encountered the problem, the CBC
writes.
Several
other patients had been admitted to the hospital to remove wires from barbecue
brushes from their throats.
“About
a year ago, I had a patient who almost died from it,” says doctor Aziz
Benbrahim. “He had [eaten] a bristle from a grill brush and he was sick for two
weeks.”
Duff
Dixon, who works at the barbecue company Barbecue World, says that you should
replace your brushes as soon as they show any wear and tear.
It’s
also best to use brushes that are attached to a metal plate, rather than a wood
or plastic one, which tend to be less secure.
According
to Dixon, this problem has existed for as long as metal barbecue brushes have
been used.
Skip the metal brush — and do this instead
The safest thing to do is skip metal barbecue brushes altogether.
There
are several other ways to clean barbecue grills without using brushes. Some
people fire up their barbecue and let it burn the residue off their grill;
others rub their grill with a raw potato. Still others use aluminum foil to
scrub the grime away.
Anthony’s
mother, Nadia, says she went public with her son’s story to warn other families
about the risks of barbecue brushes so they can avoid meeting the same fate in
the future.
“I
hope to have these brushes removed from the shelves, have them banned,” she
said.
The
family hasn’t had any more barbecues since the incident, and Nadia says that
little Anthony is still afraid to eat anything from the grill.
Hopefully,
Anthony will get over fear soon, but until then, let’s help share this story so
that more people learn about this common household danger.
Source : en.stories.newsner.com