‘Double Check Your Children’s Toys’

NEED TO KNOW

• Camila Romero, 4, is in critical condition after swallowing a button battery that caused severe internal damage

• Her parents, Cassandra Tafolla and Hugo Romero, are raising awareness about the dangers of button batteries, often found in household items and toys

• A GoFundMe has been set up to support Camila, who remains hospitalized amid her ongoing recovery

Four-year-old Camila Romero‘s parents, Cassandra Tafolla and Hugo Romero, are warning parents to be vigilant about what their young kids are playing with after Camila swallowed a button battery.

Camila was hospitalized on March 8 after she had a list of symptoms including cough, fever, fatigue and loss of appetite. She was treated for a virus at first, but during treatment, an X-ray revealed she swallowed a button battery, according to ABC News. Button batteries are small and disc-shaped, and often used in watches, remote controls, audio greeting cards, jewelry or children’s toys.

Tafolla, 24, confessed she “didn’t know what a button battery was,” and didn’t know that any of their household items required them, per ABC News. Hugo, 33, told the outlet he was aware of the battery, but “just never had anything that will use that type of battery.”

Now the parents are raising awareness about the dangers of button batteries. “Please double-check your children’s toys,” Tafolla told ABC News. “Just make sure it’s very well secured before opening and giving it to our children that are going to be playing with it.”

Each year, more than 3,500 people in the U.S., including children and adults, swallow button batteries, according to the National Capital Poison Center. Between 1985 and 2019, 33 people have died from swallowing a button battery.

Before Camila was treated, she told her mother she was feeling hot, Tafolla told ABC News.

“She was telling me her throat burned. She was telling me that she couldn’t breathe,” Tafolla recalled.

Camila’s doctor, Dr. Harman Chawla, the medical director of the pediatric intensive care unit at Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital, told ABC News that the young girl was suffering from a lung infection that developed quickly after Camila swallowed the button battery.

Once ingested, the button battery “changes the environment of the mucosa of the esophagus,” Chawla explained.

When swallowed, the electric current in lithium button batteries can be activated by saliva, causing “a chemical reaction that can severely burn the esophagus in as little as two hours,” according to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

As a result, it “damages the surrounding structures, including blood vessels as well,” Chawla told ABC News. In Camila’s case, the battery eroded, damaged and inflamed her airway.

Camila had the battery surgically removed, but remains in the pediatric ICU. She is still in critical condition due to the respiratory virus.

Tafolla previously told KTLA that the battery burned a hole “really close” to where the lungs part. “From the hole to her lungs, it’s only about an eighth of an inch from each other.”

Chawla confirmed that Camila still has “a lot of healing to do,” according to ABC News.

“We’re optimistic that we’re going to be able to get her through this,” Chawla said. But a lot of things have to go the right way, with the right timing, for her to get that outcome.”

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A GoFundMe has been established for the “bright” and “loving” 4-year-old who is “fighting for her life.”

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