Updated

A 2-year-old boy from Arizona has been forced to undergo 18 surgeries in the past year because he swallowed a nickel-sized battery, kpho.com reported.

No one saw Emmett Rauch swallow the remote control battery, according to his mother, Karla, but he soon had cold-like symptoms. When he finally had a X-ray, the battery had already started to burn his esophagus.

Karla Rauch estimated her son had the battery inside him for about three days.

Emmett is recovering at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, where one of his nurses said this type of incident is not uncommon.

"We have had two similar cases in the past couple weeks, and it's becoming more and more frequent," said Michelle Chacon, a nurse at PCH.

Chacon said lithium batteries, which are used in watches and greeting cards, pose a greater danger to humans because they do not have as much casing as an AA battery.

"You talk about childproofing your home and covering your outlets, and this needs to be a part of that," Chacon said.

Click here to read more about this story from kpho.com.