Dr. Nicholas Kuehnel, medical director of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at American Family Children’s Hospital, said the trend in these items being swallowed has grown in the past few months to about one case per week in the ER. “We have had several kids require surgery to remove Orbeez from their airway and stomach,” said Dr. Kuehnel. “We’ve also performed several surgeries to remove dead bowel from kids who swallowed Bucky Balls.”