A Sunshine Coast mother has commenced court proceedings against a local childcare provider after her daughter, who was aged five at the time, swallowed a button battery.
Using the court-approved pseudonym Jane Smith, the mother’s statement of claim filed in September alleges the battery came into the child’s possession while she was in the care of C&K Maleny in 2021.
But in its notice of intention to defend filed on November 28, the Creche and Kindergarten Association Limited (C&K) denies the allegations and questions whether the ingestion occurred at the centre or prior to her attendance, and states the child “had a propensity for putting foreign objects into their mouth”.
The child required emergency treatment after the incident, including surgery and transfer to the Queensland Children’s Hospital, where she was placed in an induced coma for several days and remained an inpatient for weeks.
She sustained severe internal injuries and, after finally returning home, required a nasogastric feeding tube for two months, with her mother administering every feed as part of her ongoing recovery.
Her mother, who was working in the emergency department of the Sunshine Coast University Hospital at the time and unexpectedly received her own daughter as a patient in a critical condition, alleges she has since developed post-traumatic stress disorder, with nightmares, intrusive thoughts, flashbacks and ongoing anxiety.
She is seeking damages of $2,910,845.
The statement of claim, filed in the Supreme Court, also alleges that kindergarten staff did not see the ingestion occur, were unaware of what the child had swallowed and phoned her parents, leaving her father to drive her to hospital.
The centre is accused of failing in its duty of care, statutory obligations, contractual obligations and consumer guarantees by not adequately inspecting the premises, maintaining systems to identify and remove hazards, supervising children safely, or providing staff with sufficient training and support to identify high-risk items such as button batteries.
C&K’s defence states it “had in place a reasonable system to eliminate or reduce the likely inadvertent presence of a button battery”.
It also contends that if the battery was swallowed at the centre, it was brought in by the child or another student, against centre policy, and that “its presence was concealed from, or not reasonably discoverable” by staff and the conduct of the child was “not reasonably foreseeable”.
C&K operates more than 320 kindergarten and childcare centres across Queensland.
Travis Schultz and Partners managing partner Travis Schultz said the case reinforced the vital safety duties of early childhood providers.
“This is not about blaming individuals. It’s about ensuring the systems, safeguards and daily checks within childcare centres are robust enough to stop deadly hazards like button batteries from ever reaching a child,” he said.
Button batteries are present in thousands of everyday household and consumer products, and Mr Schultz said the timing of the case was a stark reminder for families preparing for the holiday season.
“This case is a timely reminder, especially in the lead-up to Christmas, that our homes are filled with products containing button batteries – from toys and wearable gadgets to festive decorations and flameless candles,” he said.
“These small, shiny batteries can be deadly within hours if swallowed, yet they are found in countless items that end up in children’s hands. Every parent and carer should take a moment to check their home, particularly new gifts and Christmas stocking fillers, and ask whether those products really need to be there. The risk they pose simply isn’t worth it.”
C&K was contacted for comment but no response was received.
