Heartbroken mother warns other parents after her two-year-old daughter swallows remote control battery and dies

A heartbroken mother has issued a warning to other parents after her two-year-old daughter died from swallowing a remote control battery. 

Harper-Lee Fanthorpe, from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, passed away on May 23, hours after swallowing the battery when the acid inside burnt through her food pipe.

Mother Stacey Nicklin said she did not realise her daughter had swallowed the battery until she found the remote control with a missing button battery in her bedroom. 

Harper-Lee Fanthorpe, from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, passed away on May 23, hours after swallowing the battery when the acid inside burnt through her food pip

Mother Stacey Nicklin said she did not realise her daughter had swallowed the battery until she found the remote control with a missing button battery in her bedroom

The two-year-old was being watched over by her older sister, Jamie-Leigh Nicklin-Hulme 

She recalled her daughter's final words to her were: 'Mummy, I need you'. 

The two-year-old was being watched over by her older sister, Jamie-Leigh Nicklin-Hulme, who said the toddlers head suddenly swung backwards before she began vomiting blood. 

'She wasn't responding. She just went very wheezy, her eyes just closed and she couldn't talk back to me, like she wasn't there,' Jamie-Leigh said, as quoted by The Sun.

'It doesn't feel real, it feels like a dream.'

Harper-Lee was rushed to Royal Stoke University Hospital. 

On arrival at the hospital, the two-year-old received a blood transfusion to replace the two litres lost, before she was taken into surgery. 

Surgeons were unable to save the child after acid inside the battery burnt through her food pipe and damaged a major artery.  

She suffered a cardiac arrhythmia during surgery and passed away. 

She recalled her daughter's final words to her were: 'Mummy, I need you'

Distraught mother Stacey said that her daughter's loss had left a 'huge hole' in her family. 'These five weeks have been absolute torture, I feel so lost. The house is just so quiet,' she told the publication. 

She called on parents to 'check check check' to avoid repeating such incidents. 

'It's about awareness. If I can save one child or a hundred, then I've promised my baby I've done what I've done,' she said. 

Earlier this year, the Government launched a campaign to raise awareness of the risks of button batteries. 

North Staffordshire senior coroner Andrew Barkley said: 'There is a very clear concern about this in public health. It has affected lots of children.'