Dozens of children at a Sunshine Coast childcare centre were taken for precautionary scans after a button batteries scare on Wednesday.
Paramedics were called to the centre mid-morning amid concerns of potential button battery ingestion, after a toy was found broken in a playground with an unknown quantity of button batteries missing.
The Queensland Ambulance Service and Queensland Health organised 64 children to be picked up by private means and taken for precautionary scans at various health facilities around the region.
“We are pleased to confirm that all children have now been assessed, and no cases of ingestion have been reported,” the QAS stated via a media release.
QAS senior operations supervisor James Mayfield on Thursday praised the facility for their swift actions in identifying the potential dangers.
“The Queensland Ambulance Service won’t be identifying the facility that was involved yesterday but we do want to highlight their prompt action in notifying us by triple zero of the potential danger to the kids,” he said.
“We received a triple zero call to the facility that had located the remnants of a toy with button batteries inside it.
“It was only the remnants of the internal parts of a toy, which could not be identified to make sure that we had located all the button batteries.
“We believe that the product was brought to the facility possibly by children as the facility doesn’t have any known toys with button batteries contained in them. It was quite a complex thing identifying it, and there was still some risks that potentially we didn’t locate all the button batteries.
“A decision was made that all children involved who could have been exposed to the hazard needed to have an assessment and an X-ray performed.
“The facility throughout our dealings were very professional, they were very prompt in their actions. As we arrived they had organised for a metal detector to come to sweep the yards where it was found to eliminate any potential further risk that we didn’t locate all the button batteries.”
Mr Mayfield said the 64 children who were assessed ranged in age from two to five.
“I’ve been advised this morning that all children who were assessed got a clear X-ray results yesterday,” he said.
He said button batteries could be fatal if ingested.
“There’s a risk of internal burns and ultimately death,” he said. “That’s why we took no risk or no chance with these kids to make sure they all had an X-ray done.
“The symptoms if they do develop are abdominal pain, chest pain and some gastrointestinal bleeding.
“There’s also a risk of upper airway and choking occurring.”
“With button batteries prevention is key. We want to identify the products that could have button batteries and if they do we make sure that they are secure.”
Join an independent local news revolution by subscribing to our FREE daily news feed.
