Little Johnathan Huff, known affectionately “Nugget” was just 1 Year, 11 Months and, 13 days old, when he ingested a button battery that spent four days burning through his esophagus, intestines, and aorta causing catastrophic bleeding.
Born on January 7, 2019, in Whitesburg, Kentucky to Anthony & Jacqueline Elizabeth Maciupa Huff, the tot was known as being a fire-truck lover. Both his parents are paramedics, but that didn't prevent him from eating a disposable battery without them knowing. Mom and dad first believed that Johnathan had a viral infection that was causing him to have a raised temperature and nose bleeds.
In an interview, Mom, Jackie, disclosed that they believe that the child somehow got hold of a battery from the remote, which was kept in a pail on a counter 4.5 ft off the ground.
"AJ and I have gone over in our heads a million times and we have no idea, we can only imagine it was during that 20-minute time span," Jackie said.
"At some point one of us didn't have eyes on him. We know all this now because of how everything played out but the assumption is that the battery came from that remote."
When Johnathan had suffered a nosebleed before vomiting up blood during a nap, the couple called paramedics. It was decided that blood from his nosebleed had gone down the back of his throat, which caused him to vomit it back up. They took him to the pediatrician to get checked, who agreed this was the most likely case. "It's a reasonable explanation and it's exactly what I would say as a medical professional, 100 percent," Jackie said.
It appeared as though the worst was over, but the next day, Johnathan had a fever, so they went back to the doctor. He was swabbed for Covid, and had a chest x-ray taken. Tragically, the battery did not show up.
"There was no battery on that x-ray picture, the only explanation is that the battery must have already traveled lower than the chest at this point," Jackie said.
Although he rested and seemed to improve, a few days later the fever returned and he began to cough up blood. "I picked him up, then he coughed again and vomited bright red blood all down my shirt. It was a lot, it was very shocking," his mom said. They called an ambulance. They knew they were losing him, his heartbeat was beginning to fade and he was unconscious.
"There was no air going in and when I took my mouth off bright red blood just gurgled out of him," she said.
By the time she made it to the hospital after the ambulance, the boy was already dead.
It wasn't until an autopsy was performed that they discovered the lithium battery.
The couple is sharing Johnathan's story so that no other family goes through what they have.
Jackie said: 'I just want to make every parent aware of the dangers and make people realize just how many devices have these batteries all over your home.
"In this case, the back of the remote slides right off, it wasn't screwed down. After this happened we started doing research into it, something as simple as putting duct tape over the back of the remote could have stopped this."
