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Dusty had been happily playing at home before a split second of curiosity turned into a devastating nightmare for his parents.
The happy 14-month-old Gold Coast boy was being supervised in the studio of his Logan home while his parents worked nearby.
“He was just pattering around as he usually does,” mother Katie Robinson told news.com.au.
The 36-year-old baker had laid out toys to keep him occupied while she put the finishing touches on a Bluey-themed cake for a customer.
But, like any toddler, Dusty couldn’t deny the strong call of adventure that every tot his age seems to have.
He pulled a tube of lustre dust powder from his mom’s drawer – a product used by bakers to add shimmer to cakes and other baked goods.
“Within seconds [he] had just pulled it off with his teeth, the cap, and just inhaled it and ingested it at the same time,” she recounted, speaking to this publication from the hospital where her little boy remains in an induced coma.
In the blink of an eye, every parent’s worst nightmare became a reality for the Logan couple.
“He was just choking and getting upset, and you could tell that he was starting to struggle to breathe,” Robinson said.
The parents began first aid while calling triple-0 for emergency assistance.
“In the time it took for the ambulance to get there, he was not breathing well. He was grunting, really low grunt and then trying to take a quick, sharp breath in,” she said.
“His body was flopping around, his eyes were rolling in his head, and he was just getting unresponsive. I was trying to slap his cheeks, call out his name, and he just wasn’t opening his eyes. So [it] got really scary at that point.”
Through the fear, it was the mother’s quick thinking that saw her little boy get the help he needed.
“[The powder] was brand new, which was actually helpful, because we could see how much had gone into his body,” she explained.
Doctors were able to determine the volume that had entered Dusty’s system, but it didn’t make the reality any less frightening.
His parents helplessly watched medical staff hook their baby up to machines before whisking him away for surgery to “flush out his lungs” using a saline solution.
“They could see that it was a lot of shimmery sort of powder that came out in the liquid. And it [the powder] was sitting on top of the liquid, so you could tell that it wasn’t going to be dissolved in water, which obviously means as well that it’s not going to be dissolved in blood,” the mother said.
“They weren’t sure how the body was going to expel this, and they didn’t actually know what was at that point.”
When they found out the hidden ingredients it added fuel to the situation. The dust had contained copper.
When ingested, the metal can trigger respiratory distress, severe lung damage and even long-term chronic damage.
“It’s just not a product that you would expect to be anywhere near anything that has to do with food,” she pointed out.
While some decorative powders are edible, many are actually inedible metallic pigments that pose a severe risk if swallowed or inhaled.
Even as a seasoned baker, she was completely unaware that the product posed a risk to her family.
“All the doctors have said this is such a rare case … they haven’t really seen this before. So it’s been a difficult one for everyone,” Robinson shared.
With her son now living proof that the incredibly rare incident can happen, Robinson is using Dusty’s story, issuing an emotion-filled plea to parents.
“I just have this driving me now that I just feel like I need to get this out there. It’s so hard to see my little boy like that, and I don’t want anyone to have to go through what we’ve gone through,” she said.
The Aussie mom wants to see awareness grow and products containing inedible dangers removed from stores.
“There is a whole range of lustre dusts that are edible, and obviously, there is a whole range that are not. So I just think that we should be taking off the shelf all of the ones that are not edible, even if they’re advertised as only to be used on removable parts,” she petitioned.
Robinson cautioned others to read the label carefully and if the ingredients aren’t listed, not to take the risk at all.
“Just throw it in the bin. Only ever use a product that says it’s edible, that has an ingredient list on it, and doesn’t say toxic,” she said.
Throughout the heartache, the couple have felt the arms of their community wrap around them with a GoFundMe working to ease financial burdens.
“We feel so supported by so many people. I’ve had friends come and drop off meals, and everyone that I know has been sharing this GoFundMe link so that we are able to stay here [in hospital] and not have to stress about life,” Robinson said.
Little by little, Dusty’s condition is improving, and he’s now “trying to breathe more on his own.”
There’s a possibility of “complications with his lungs” with ongoing treatment needed, but given the rarity of the case it’s all stemming down to a doctor’s “educated guess” for the path forward.
“To not know what the future holds for all of us is really quite scary,” she said.
“He’s got a lot of fight in him. He’s really pushing to try to heal himself.”
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