An eight-year-old boy who died after swallowing ten tiny magnets may have been taking part in a TikTok trend, a coroner ruled.
Rhys Millum was killed when the 3mm silver balls stuck together in a 30mm long row in his bowel and perforated his small intestine, an inquest into his death heard.
He never mentioned putting the magnets in his mouth, even after becoming sick – instead they were found during a full body CT scan after his death.
His mum Andrea Boyd, from Harrogate, North Yorkshire, said she had seen a TikTok ‘fake piercing challenge’ where a person puts one magnet on the outside of the cheek and the other on the inside.
But he had never spoken about this challenge with his family, the Mail Online reports.
Police did find a video of him talking to his brother about boosting his social media profiles by doing stunts that were ‘a bit dare devil… like drinking hot sauce’.
The video was recorded just ten days before Rhys’s death, Northallerton Coroner’s Court was told.
Andrea said her son first complained of stomach pain on the morning of September 30, 2022.
‘He was doubled over screaming,’ she said. I gave him Calpol thinking it was wind. It did not seem to settle him much.’
Andrea took her son to A&E at Harrogate District Hospital, where a doctor carried out three physical examinations of his abdomen.
After a period of observation, during which time Rhys appeared to be recovering, it was decided he could go home but should be brought back if things got worse again.
He then went to his father, Richard Millum’s, for the weekend, where he didn’t want to eat anything, struggled to drink fluids and vomited a number of times.
There were occasions, however, when he felt better and would watch TV and play video games, the court heard.
But on Sunday evening Rhys told his dad he ‘could not see’, sat down on a chair and shortly after fell unconscious.
Richard called an ambulance, while also trying to revive his son. The boy was rushed to hospital where he suffered a heart attack.
He was put on life support but never regained consciousness and died later that night.
A post mortem a few days later revealed there were magnet balls lodged in his bowel, which had killed him.
The court heard Rhys and his brother had been given a tin of the magnets along with other toys by a family friend after a house clear out about a month before Rhys died.
The balls are meant to be used to create sculptures.
Richard said: ‘He [Rhys] loved those magnets. He was messing around with them all the time. Sometimes he would be playing with 30 or 40 of them at a time.’
However he said he never saw Rhys try the mock piercing or put the balls in his mouth.
Mrs Boyd said her son ‘did not really have a sense of danger’ and was ‘pretty fearless’.
Police said they found no evidence of Rhys having a TikTok account but noted that it was possible to watch TikTok videos on other platforms such as YouTube.
Coroner Catherine Cundy recorded a misadventure conclusion.
She said the video of Rhys playing with his brother showed he was aware of social media challenges and may have seen people using magnets as fake piercings.
She described what happened as tragic series of events, adding that Rhys would not have understood the danger of swallowing the magnets, which are legal to sell.
Metro.co.uk has contacted TikTok for comment.
She said she hoped his death would serve as a warning to others about the potential risk the balls pose, especially to children.
The mother of 12-year-old Archie Battersbee, who died after being found unconscious with something around his neck, suspected he was taking part in a social media black out challenge.
However a coroner said there was no evidence to suggest this.
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