UK Baby Suffers Heart Attack, Loses Half His Tongue After Drinking Drain Cleaner He Thought Was Milk

In a shocking incident, a 13-month-old baby suffered a heart attack and catastrophic internal burns after he accidentally drank household drain cleaner, mistaking it for milk, according to reports.

The baby, identified as Sam Anwar Alshameri from Birmingham, crept behind his mother, who was cleaning the bathroom at their flat, and drank caustic soda from a white bottle on the floor in May last year, thinking it was milk, according to a report by The Sun.

The boy suffered burns to his mouth, tongue, lips and airways and suffered a heart attack, rendering him unconscious for three minutes. However, Sam defied “million-to-one” odds by surviving the heart attack, as per doctors. He was admitted to intensive care at Birmingham Children’s Hospital,

where tubes were inserted in his nose as he could not eat after losing half of his tongue.

‘Thought It Was Milk’

“He thought the bottle was milk,” said Sam’s father, Nadeen Alshameri, 37. “By the time we knew what had happened, it was already burning him.”

Nadeen said his wife, Mukhtara, 27, was cleaning the bathroom while their four children were in the living room. Sam wandered in behind her without her realising and picked up the bottle she had placed on the floor while unblocking the sink and bath, as reported by The Sun.

The drain cleaner immediately burned his lips, mouth and tongue, causing life-threatening internal injuries. “Sam wandered in behind her without her realising and picked up the bottle she had placed on the floor while unblocking the sink and bath,” he said, adding that his stopped beating for three minutes.

“They brought him back to life and took him to intensive care. I can’t ever forget that moment,” he said. Sam’s mouth has begun to seal shut, and he now only has a tiny gap left, which is too small to swallow food or drink after the burns.

Nadeen said the boy is on a waiting list for urgent reconstructive surgery, but is currently out of hospital and is being taken care of at home. He has launched a GoFundMe in the hopes of raising enough money to take his son to specialists in Germany and Turkey.