A mother's attempt to enhance her children's safety at Disneyland took an ironic and terrifying turn when her four-year-old daughter was hospitalized after swallowing a button battery from an Apple AirTag. Lisa Marie had purchased four of the tracking devices specifically to "keep her children safe" during a family trip to the popular resort in Anaheim, California, US, in April. However, after the AirTags broke during the holiday, she stored them in her car's glovebox, intending to get them repaired.

On May 23, the Vancouver Island-based mum-of-four, Lisa Marie, experienced every parent's nightmare. While in the car, her daughter, Lily Grace, made a distinctive "gulping sound." Lisa Marie quickly realized that Lily Grace, aged four, had managed to access one of the stored AirTags, open it, and swallow its coin-sized button battery. Along with her husband Markus, 48, Lisa Marie immediately rushed Lily Grace to the hospital, where an x-ray scan confirmed the battery had already made its way into her bowel.

The family then endured an agonizing four-day wait for the battery to pass naturally through Lily Grace's system. This period was filled with immense stress and fear, with Lily Grace's three siblings even expressing concerns that she might die. Button batteries pose severe risks to children, capable of causing significant damage to the lining of the oesophagus or bowel, and in extreme cases, can burn through the lining completely, leading to perforations. The severity of such incidents was tragically highlighted in 2020, when two-year-old Johnathan Huff from Greensboro, North Carolina, died after ingesting remote control batteries that burned through his internal organs.

Thankfully, Lily Grace experienced no lasting side effects, and the battery passed through her system naturally. Despite this positive outcome, the emotional toll on the family was substantial. Lisa Marie recounted her initial terror, believing her daughter's "whole insides are burned out," and described crying on the hospital bathroom floor. Medical staff considered scoping out the battery, but it had already progressed too far into her bowels. During the anxious wait at home, Lisa Marie resorted to various measures, including giving Lily Grace laxatives, encouraging her to use trampolines and vibration plates, and feeding her prunes, all in an attempt to aid the battery's passage.

Lisa Marie, who had repeatedly warned her children about the dangers of button batteries for years, including a warning just two weeks prior to this incident, highlighted the profound irony of the situation. "The things that I thought would keep my kids safe are actually what caused harm," she stated. She expressed disbelief that her daughter would not only go into the glove box but also open an AirTag and swallow its battery. This harrowing experience has compelled Lisa Marie to issue an urgent plea to other parents: "If you have any toys that have button batteries in them then throw them out, get rid of them." She also noted the challenge of managing gifts containing such batteries, emphasizing the need for constant vigilance and education, advising parents to "be over cautious."