Fake tongue rings almost prove deadly for Colorado teen
By Jon Bowman - KDVR-TV FOX-31 News
WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. -- A 13-year-old girl is lucky to be alive after a mishap with a magnetic tongue ring.
Teens are using the rings to give the illusion that they have a pierced tongue.
But the trend could be deadly, and one Wheat Ridge teen almost found out the hard way.
"I could have died if I had waited to come to the hospital," Lauren Garcia says.
The girl is recovering after swallowing fake tongue rings, which are really small magnetized ball bearings. The tiny magnets could have burned a hole through her intestines.
"Of course I got upset and I had asked her what is in your mouth, then she said, "They come out mommy, look," and she showed me. I told her "you need to throw those away,"" says Lauren's mother, Andrea Ulibarri.
The pain got so intense on Tuesday that Lauren called her mother at work.
Her mom says that Lauren was in tears, "she couldn't walk, her side was hurting pretty bad."
"They bounced off my tooth and went down my throat, and I couldn't stop it," says Lauren.
A CAT scan clearly shows two sets of tiny ball bearings in Lauren's intestines.
"You have one strong magnet in one loop of intestine, another magnet in another loop of intestine, and those magnets are so strong that they will bring those intestines close together and the two loops joined," says Lauren's surgeon, Dr. Saundra Kay. "Slowly those magnets will burrow through the intestines and it makes a hole."
Mom has spoken with the head master at Cesar Chavez Academy to make other kids aware of the danger.
As for Lauren, mom says she has a class project that she will be working on.
"Her punishment is going to be to write an essay on her experience, and the she is going to educate the school about what happened so hopefully this doesn't happen again," says Lauren mom.
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