TALLMADGE, Ohio (WJW) – A devastated mother is speaking out about the dangers of button
batteries after the death of her two-year-old daughter.

For Sumiah Hamdan, of Tallmadge, the pain is never-ending.

“It’s like your heart has been pulled out of your chest every single day,” said Hamdan.

It’s been almost a month since Hamdan lost her daughter, Nahlah, after the little girl swallowed a button battery that was in one of her toys.

“I remember I’m waiting for her to get up, she’s pouting. And then two seconds later, she just spits up a pile of blood. I just picked her up and I started screaming for her dad,” said Hamdan

Nahlah was rushed to urgent care and then taken by EMS to Akron Children’s Hospital. Doctors were able to stabilize her, but when she was moved to pediatric intensive care, Nahlah went downhill fast.

“She was just bleeding internally 50 different ways. They didn’t know where it was coming from.  They couldn’t get her pulse, they couldn’t get her heart. They used all the blood they had, they didn’t have anymore,” Hamdan said.

Nahlah Miah Barber died Sunday, March 19.

It wasn’t until the next day that Hamdan learned Nahal’s cause of death from the autopsy.

Hamdan believes Nahlah swallowed the button battery from her squishy toy at some point the day before. In less than 24 hours, the battery burned through the little girl’s body with no symptoms other than when she started bleeding the morning of her death.

“A little battery. Out of everything she could have gotten into, a hair product, something.  No, it was a little battery,” said Hamdan.

Hamdan is warning parents to double check their children’s toys. She is also advocating for the banning of button batteries in children’s toys.

“I believe that God has a reason for everything, but we will never understand the reason. Maybe the reason is that we’ve helped people. They’ve told me they got rid of toys with button batteries, but why did she have to leave for us to do that?” said Hamdan.