Calming Fidget Spinner Caused Choking Incident

If you haven’t come across the Fidget Spinner – the newest addictive craze that allows you to focus at the task at hand without disrupting others — then this will surely get your attention. A concerned mother in Texas posted on Facebook when her 10-year-old daughter swallowed and choked on one of the bearings from her Fidget Spinner.

Each Fidget Spinner is a handheld gadget that comes with steel bearings that enable the toy to rotate around and – well – spin. They are intended to calm nerves and help with stress and anxiety. Apparently they have done the adverse affect for the daughter of Kelly Rose Joneic.

On May 15, Kelly Rose Joniec of Houston wrote a Facebook post that went viral with over 704,000 shares.

“On the way home from a fun swim meet, I heard Britton make an odd retching noise in the back seat as I was driving,” she wrote. “Looking back in the mirror, I saw her face turning red and drool pouring from her mouth — she could utter noises but looked panicked so I immediately pulled over. She pointed to her throat saying she’d swallowed something, so I attempted Heimlich but there was no resistance. She said she’d put part of her fidget spinner in her mouth to clean it and somehow swallowed it.”

Joniec described the incident in detail on the post. Texas Children’s Hospital took an X-ray which “showed the spinner bushing lodged in her esophagus.” This was news to the gastrointestinal doctor who had just learned about the toy that morning while visiting the mall with his son.

“He’s also an advocate for related child safety in toys, so he took a special interest in the case,” she wrote.

The surgery was a success but her personal nightmare prompted her to warn other parents of the inherent danger these harmless looking spinners can cause to some.

“From this I wish to offer some word of caution to parents,” she wrote. “Kids of all ages may be getting them, but not all spinners come with age-appropriate warnings. The bushings pop out easily, so if you have young kids (under 8 yr old) keep in mind that these present a potential choking hazard.”

“Our full attention and focus is on caring for our daughter and ensuring she continues to lead a healthy life,” the Joniec family said in a statement to CNN.

While the makers of Fidget Spinner claim that the toys “are a wonderful tool for anybody that has ever felt stressed,”  some schools in Minnesota and Massachusetts have already banned it from classrooms.

“We have kids who are using them and kids who sit near those kids are distracted by them. Kids themselves are playing with them and showing them to friends,” Haley Tepper, a teacher from Arthur E. Wright Middle School, told California television station KCBS.

Inventor Catherine Hettinger, who attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, was inspired to create the toy while visiting her sister in Israel. She observed young boys throwing rocks at police officers and people walking past them. Her mission was to create a toy that could distract young children and provide them with a soothing object.

“It started as a way of promoting peace, and then I went on to find something that was very calming,” Hettinger, told Time. “People may be looking for ways to calm their nerves and have fun. That was always the concept — to help people. I experienced it for myself. There’s a real need for this.”

Perhaps the spin on this story is to act responsibly when playing with the fidget spinner to avoid these accidents from occurring.