The girl had been playing with her mother in the suburbs of Toulouse, France, when she opened the Kinder Surprise egg and put a “toy with wheels in her mouth,” said the mother.
The toddler’s grandfather arrived quickly and managed to extract the object, but a small wheel that broke off from the toy got stuck in her airway and she was unable to breathe. Firefighters were called and they were able to resuscitate the girl, said police reports.
But she was left with fatal brain injuries and slipped into a coma on Saturday, January 16. She died at the hospital a short while later. An autopsy, conducted three days later, confirmed “death following mechanical asphyxiation”.
A sign on the wrapping of Kinder Surprise eggs, made by Ferrero, warns against giving them to children aged under three years, as the toys contain small parts that “might be swallowed or inhaled”. The product is banned in the US because of a law that forbids toys to be hidden in food because of the choking risks.
Ferrero said that upon hearing the “sad news” of the girl’s death, it was unable to confirm whether its Kinder brand had indeed been involved.