Tiny batteries can kill in less than 2 hours.

Each year (click here) in the United States, more than 2,800 kids are treated in emergency rooms after swallowing button batteries. That's one child every three hours. The number of serious injuries or deaths as a result of button batteries has increased ninefold in the last decade.


July 3, 2013
By Emilia Wade

...Detecting (click here) that a child has swallowed or inserted a battery is difficult for doctors because it can look like a button or a coin in an x-ray, so Ms Weaver said it was vital that parents let medical professionals know it could be a battery....

The stomach's digestive juices are called Gastric Acid. It is a combination of ingredients, but, the most powerful is hydrochloric acid. Gastric Acid has a pH of 1.5 to 3.5 and is composed of hydrochloric acid (HCl) (around 0.5%, or 5000 parts per million) as high as 0.1 M.

In the video below the lithium is removed from the batteries protective casing. However, the casing is not enough to stop the interaction of the lithium and HCl inside the stomach of a child. There is still an interaction with the source of the batteries power that will begin and the rapid process of the casings disintegration once swallowed.

It is the interaction between the Gastric Acid and the Lithium that kills the child. Saliva is nearly a 100% water with traces of digestive enzymes. The water content of the body probably has something to do with it in causing erosion of the skin, but, I think it is more than that.

Heimlich maneuvers on children can force stomach contents into the throat.