Amelie Adolphe, 2, and mother Leslie Bangamba. (Madison Jamie Photography)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

road to recovery

Family of Red Deer toddler who swallowed battery paying it forward

Oct 11, 2020 | 4:18 PM

The family of a Red Deer girl who swallowed a button battery and underwent life-saving treatment at Stollery Children’s Hospital this year is using her second birthday to say thank you.

rdnewsNOW first reported on Amélie Adolphe’s hardships in May. It was on April 9 when the 18-month-old swallowed a battery, keeled over and began bleeding from the nose.

Her mother, Leslie Bangamba, said Amélie flatlined twice in hospital, and ultimately suffered rupturing of the esophagus, trachea, aorta, and carotid artery. Since being released, she’s twice undergone esophageal dilatation treatment, but is back to being a happy little girl on the road to a full recovery.

Bangamba says while she still hopes battery companies will take safety awareness more seriously, it was time the family did something to give back to the community, which has donated over $25,000 to a GoFundMe.

“The reality is that Amélie doesn’t need more things, so I thought about what we could do to pay it forward, or give back in a way that’s tangible,” says Bangamba. “The economy isn’t good, and businesses can’t contribute like they usually do. Plus, I’m a direct recipient of the Stollery’s services; if it wasn’t for their world class doctors, the facility, and those pieces being so perfectly in order, we wouldn’t have our daughter.”

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That’s why, as Bangamba explains, they’re donating $1,000 of GoFundMe proceeds to the Stollery, and are looking to raise at least double that for the hospital through Amélie’s ‘Stollery Superstars’ page.

“We’re still learning how to swallow properly without vomiting, but she continues to progress. The dilations have been great in helping her,” Bangamba says. “The first one reignited her interest in food, so now we’re at about 80 per cent being fed through a gastrointestinal tube. The fact she’s eating orally at all is great.”

Each treatment involves putting Amélie to sleep, then inserting a scope with a balloon on the end into her throat which is used to expand the esophagus.

“A rupture occurred where they repaired tears in her throat and it created a fistula,” she explains. “At first, there was water seeping into her windpipe. By God’s grace, it closed on its own, but did create a narrowing in her esophagus.”

As Amélie lay in a hospital bed last spring, connected to a litany of tubes, she was recovering from extensive surgery to remove the battery. In the initial stages, she lost a lot of blood, but received 4.2 litres back through a transfusion.

Doctors determined saliva had mixed with the battery, creating an electrical current which then caused a chemical reaction and internal burning. She also suffered a stroke on the left side of her brain, and had subdermal bleeding.

The battery, doctors said, may have been inside Amélie for a couple days, while research shows ingesting a battery can be fatal in just hours.

Bangamba will be sharing her daughter’s story on October 23 during the BIG 105 and 106.7 The Drive ‘Fill the Seats Bloodathon’ which airs LIVE on each radio station from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The goal is to have more than 100 people call into each and fill blood donation appointments with Canadian Blood Services.

“I am telling anyone and everyone what my story and message on this is. I’m trying to build as much awareness so that it’s marked in history, so that we can have an annual button battery awareness day,” says Bangamba. “The messages I’ve received have proven to me that this is worthwhile. One mom told me she had 19 button batteries just laying around, and thanked me for sharing my story.”

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