Girl undergoes surgery after swallowing magnetic toy pieces

Amy and Jason Lents thought their daughter Haley was suffering from the stomach flu when she began doubling over in pain. They had no idea she had swallowed magnetic pieces of a toy that could have killed her. "I just couldn't believe what I was looking at," Jason Lents said.

It took Jason Lents just one look at his daughter's X-ray to realize what was causing her so much pain. "When I saw the full X-ray, I knew exactly what it was," Jason Lents said. Pieces of the toy Magnetix, which is made by Mega Brands, were inside of Haley.

"Haley loves Magnetix," Jason Lents said. "Loves them. And, against my wife's advice, I made sure she got those for Christmas." He said he never imagined his 8-year-old daughter would swallow pieces of it.



"She's only been in America three years, and while she was in Russia, which is where she is from, in the orphanage ... they told us she ate everything she could get her hands on," Jason Lents said.

"What can happen is when those magnets get close enough together they will become attracted to each other," said Dr. Bob Collins of Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis. Collins said those magnets can then rip through the intestines, causing damage comparable to a gunshot or a stab wound.

Haley suffered eight tears in her intestines, he said. "You can get very, very sick and ultimately (it will) lead to death if (it's) not surgically corrected," Collins said.

With news video and slideshow.