Heartwarming update after toddler plunged into coma after inhaling cake decorating dust

Fourteen-month-old Dusty was plunged into a coma after inhaling cake decorating powder. Photo / GoFundMe

Heartbroken parents have provided a health update after their toddler was plunged into a coma following a horror baking accident.

Gold Coast mum and professional baker Katie Robinson was baking a Bluey-themed cake for the first birthday of her friend’s son when her own 14-month-old son, Dusty, inhaled “gold dust powder” that was part of the product.

Speaking to Sunrise, Robinson said she was making a cake for her friend’s child when her son opened a drawer and pulled the cap off the metallic dusting powder.

She said she and her partner Chris were in the studio and “both had eyes” on the 14-month-old.

“It was a matter of seconds before he was into something and choking,” she said.

“And you know, within minutes he was unresponsive.”

The unopened canister was filled with metallic dust, which is used to decorate the cake, but is not edible.

“It contains metals that shouldn’t be ingested or inhaled,” she said.

“There’s so many [cake decorating powders] that are edible. They say 100% edible on them. [You can] use them on directly on the cake – the parts that are being eaten."

In a GoFundMe page set up by Robinson’s friend Rochelle Evrard, it was explained that Dusty became unresponsive and Robinson called triple-0.

“When the dust is mixed with water it turns to paste – so it immediately blocked Dusty’s lungs,” Evrard wrote on the GoFundMe page.

Dusty was taken to Queensland Children’s Hospital, where he was placed in an induced coma.

Speaking to news website Today, his mum said Dusty was slowly on the mend.

“He’s a fighter,” she said, sitting outside the hospital.

Dusty was placed in an induced coma and underwent surgery to clear his lungs. Photo / GoFundMe

“He’s been fighting so hard.” Robinson said the doctors had seen improvements in Dusty’s health after the horror incident.

“The doctors are so happy with him this morning at how he’s pushing back, and he’s saying that he’s ready to have that tube taken out,” she said.

The toddler has since had surgery to clear his lungs and is having another surgery “to move his tube from his mouth to his nose and check his lungs again as he’s not breathing on his own yet”.

Dusty’s father, Chris Wildman, told 9News they tried to keep him awake.

“I just felt so helpless,” he said tearfully.

The product has been pulled from shelves.

Dusty’s parents are both sole traders and “don’t know when they’ll be able to work again”.

The A$43,000 ($52,250) already raised will help Dusty’s parents with accommodation costs as they have had to relocate to Brisbane from the Gold Coast while their son receives treatment.

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