Picture used for illustrative purpose only.

The surgical team specialising in infants and newborns at the Maternity and Children Hospital in Hafr Al Batin in Saudi Arabia on TUesday managed to save the life of a two-year-old girl who had been suffering from abdominal pain with continuous vomiting for more than two weeks.

X-ray images showed the presence of 27 small magnetic balls inside the girl's intestine, which led to the formation of 8 holes in the intestinal wall.

It turned out that the girl swallowed the magnets from a toy she was playing with.

The child's constant pain entailed the need for a quick surgical intervention to extract the magnetic pieces and sew the intestinal holes caused by the magnets' presence inside the digestive tract for a prolonged period.

The operation, which took three and a half hours to perform, was successful. The girl was discharged from the hospital after her condition stabilised, and she is now in good health.