A mum whose baby almost died after swallowing a battery has demonstrated how quickly it burns through bacon.
Hollie Phillips had a terrifying near-miss last August when her son Ralphie swallowed a button battery from a children's toy the day before his first birthday.
The 28-year-old, from Hertfordshire, knew of the dangers if ingested, but she hadn’t realised toys belonging to her other son, Albie, five, had the batteries in.
After noticing Ralphie had swallowed something, he started “uncontrollably crying”.
Hollie rushed him to the local hospital as he began vomiting "black and blood coloured sick", with X-rays showing the battery was lodged in his oesophagus.
They were then transferred to Addenbrooke’s hospital in Cambridgeshire, with surgeons warning her to prepare for the worst.
"I went from planning his first birthday to planning his funeral," Hollie, who runs a brunch event company, said.
"My whole world fell apart as they rushed him into theatre, I signed papers and was told the risks."
Two surgeons worked together to remove the battery, and told Hollie it had caused significant damage to Ralphie’s insides.
Thankfully, he became stable and after three weeks in hospital, he was allowed to go home.
Hollie has since dedicated herself to raising awareness about the dangers of the batteries, which are commonly found in children’s toys, remote controls, car keys, and weighing scales.
She said: "I realised crying about it wasn’t going to change – I knew I couldn’t let this happen again to another child or family."
Hollie shared a video on TikTok where she demonstrated how dangerous button batteries could be, placing one in between two rashers of raw bacon.
Within five minutes, a slight black ring appeared around the battery on the meat.
When the batteries get wet it causes an electrical current, which breaks them down to form a corrosive oven cleaner-like substance.
Hollie added some water to substitute for saliva.
"It can literally burn a hole through any part of the digestive system such as the oesophagus," she said.
“Even if the battery is old or flat, it will still produce enough electricity to cause burns inside the body.”
After 15 minutes, a darker black ring can be seen burned into the bacon.
Hollie adds: “Imagine this after two hours and the damage it can do to a child.”
The post racked up more than 7,000 likes and was viewed 95,000 times.
Hollie said: “I do believe everything happens for a reason and, as much I wish it never happened to us, I’m going to use Ralphie’s story to change the world and bring worldwide awareness to make sure we can reduce the risk, change the laws, change packings and save more lives.”
The mum is calling for an end to having button batteries in children’s toys.
She is working alongside Stacey-Marie Niklin, the mother of Harper-Lee Fanthirpe, who sadly died last year at the age of two after swallowing one of the batteries.
The battery had been easily removed from a remote control, and caused fatal internal injuries to the young girl.
Stacey-Marie has since started a petition called Harper-Lee’s Law, which she and Hollie hope to bring to parliament.
