Teen Lucky to Be Alive After Swallowing Magnetic Tongue Rings

Doctors say a 13-year-old Colorado girl is lucky to be alive after swallowing a magnetic tongue ring that could have burned a hole in her intestine.

Lauren Garcia, of Wheat Ridge, Colo., accidentally swallowed the small magnetized ball bearings that are meant to look like a fake tongue, kdvr.com reports.

The girl was taken to the hospital, where tests showed two sets of tiny ball bearings in her 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," said the girl's surgeon, Dr. Saundra Kay. "Slowly those magnets will burrow through the intestines and it makes a hole."

Garcia said she now hopes to educate other teens on the danger of magnetic tongue rings.

"I could have died if I had waited to come to the hospital," Garcia said.

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