Used battery explodes in Chinese toddler’s mouth
As her parents sat nearby nibbling melon seeds, tiny Xuan Xuan picked up a strange object and started chewing it
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 02 February, 2016, 1:58pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 02 February, 2016, 2:36pm
Gloria Chan
[email protected]

Xuan Xuan undergoes surgery at the Wuhan Children’s Hospital. The toddler was chewing on a used battery when it exploded in her mouth. Photo: SCMP Pictures
A one-year-old girl in northern China was badly injured after a used battery exploded as she was chewing it, forming a hole 2cm wide and 1.5cm deep in her mouth, mainland media reports on Sunday.
The accident happened on Saturday night in Xinyang, Henan province, when the girl, Xuan Xuan, was with her family who were chewing melon seeds while she played nearby, the Chutian Metropolis Daily reported.
The little girl mimicked her parents by chewing on a used battery lying nearby, which exploded in her mouth.
She was rushed to the local hospital, but as doctors were unable to determine whether she had swallowed bits of the battery, she was sent to the Wuhan Children’s Hospital in neighbouring Hubei province, an eight-hour drive away.
Fortunately, no traces of the battery were found in Xuan Xuan’s stomach and surgeons sewed up her wound in a two-hour operation.
Doctor Zhou Qixing of the Wuhan Children’s Hospital reminded parents to keep items like batteries and magnets away from children.

The remains of the battery that exploded in the mouth of one-year-old Xuan Xuan. Photo: SCMP Pictures