Toddler in coma after inhaling gold dust powder while baking cake

©Sara Cervera via Unsplash

A 14-month-old boy has slipped into a coma in Australia while his mother was baking a cake.

The toddler inhaled so-called "gold dust powder," a baking ingredient often used as a decorative embellishment, including cakes, cupcakes and desserts. It is a fine, shiny metallic powder that in practice usually consists of real gold. The gold is usually pure to 22-24 carats and is ground into a powdery form in extremely thin layers or granules. In cooking, it is also called edible gold powder, gold dust or "edible gold dust".

Mother Katie was baking a cake for a friend's baby's first birthday and used the gold powder. Her infant son escaped her attention for a few seconds while preparing the cake. It's when her 14-month-old child inhaled the gold dust powder that things went wrong. Indeed, little son Dusty became unconscious and unresponsive to anything. "When the gold dust gets mixed with water, it turns into a paste - so it immediately clogged Dusty's lungs," a family friend said on her social media.

The little boy was rushed to the hospital and underwent surgery to clear his lungs. He was then put into an artificial coma. Following the incident, the supplier of the product ceased operations and recalled the entire line of products containing "metal dust". Dusty is still in a coma. To support the family with the skyrocketing hospital costs, a GoFundMe was set up. More than $50,000 has already been raised to cover medical expenses.

©Sara Cervera via Unsplash - illustration image of edible gold dust