Medics were stunned after treating a boy with abdominal pains and finding a six-inch long MAGNET in his stomach.
The six-year-old boy was admitted with agonising stomach cramps to the hospital in Khon Kaen, northeast Thailand on January 31.
He told doctors the pains in his belly were at their worst when he leaned forwards.
Doctors performed x-rays and were shocked to find the long magnetic stick on the right side of his body above his pelvis.
Surgeon Sombat Arsarak from the Ratchaphruek Hospital said the lad's father immediately recognised the item as a magnet toy he had bought a few days before.
It is made up several one-inch-long magnetic sticks, each around 1/5 inch, that children can connect together to make different 3D shapes.
The boy had six of them joined together in his stomach.
Dr Sombat said: "We were confused by the stick in the boy's stomach and we struggled to identify it.
But the father immediately realised what it was after seeing the x-rays because he was the one who gave the boy that toy.
"The sticks have strong magnetic powers and even we operated on the boy's stomach they stuck to our equipment, which made removing them much easier.'' Medics removed the magnetic toy, half of which had already turned black from stomach acids.
They said that the boy might even have swallowed the pieces individually, or three at a time, before they attached themselves in his stomach.
The boy's sister later confessed to her father that she had seen her brother swallow the pieces but did not tell her parents because she was scared that they would scold her.
During a conference about the case, hospital director Dr Theerawat Srinakarin warned parents who have children aged from one to eight to be more careful when they give them toys.
He said: "Parents should scrutinise their children when they play with little toys because they tend to swallow them out of curiosity.
"I have encountered many similar cases of children swallowing toys and sometimes the outcome can be much worse than this.
The boy was lucky.''