"Doctors remove coin wedged in 5-year-old’s throat"

"Doctors remove coin wedged in 5-year-old’s throat"

Story by Sagaya Fernando

Mumbai: April 24, 2018

5-year-old Nishikant Naik from Mumbai who had come to his uncle’s place in Nashik (an ancient city and a well know Hindu pilgrim site in the state of Maharashtra) to spend the summer vacation, while playing swallowed a Rs 2 coin.

The panicked child somehow managed to tell his uncle about it. The family members rushed Nishikant to the Nashik Civil Hospital, where an x-ray showed the coin stuck in the child’s throat.

“The incident took place on April 12 at around 5.30 pm when the boy was playing with other children. He was brought to our hospital at 6 pm. And, after doing an x-ray to determine where the coin was lodged, we decided to conduct laryngoscopy to remove the coin wedged in the throat,” said Dr. Sanjay Gangurde, Head of the Ear, Nose and Throat Department at the hospital, who conducted the procedure.

Laryngoscopy is a visual examination below the back of the throat, where the voice box (larynx) containing the vocal cords is located. It is an effective procedure for discovering the causes of voice and breathing problems, pain in the throat or ear, difficulty in swallowing, narrowing of the throat, and removing foreign objects blocking the airway.

“The procedure took about 45 minutes, and the coin was removed successfully without causing any incision to the boy,” said Dr. Gangurde, adding that the child was discharged the very next day and he is doing fine now.

Incidentally, Dr. Gangurde had conducted a similar laryngoscopy two weeks prior to this one, on a 5-year-old girl who too had swallowed a Rs 2 coin. Vaishnavi Mali, a resident of nearby Manmad town, was given the coin by her grandfather so she could buy a chocolate. Vaishnavi was playing with the coin when she put it in her mouth and swallowed it by mistake, and the coin got lodged in her throat. She was taken to the Manmad Sub-district civil hospital from where she was referred to the Nashik Civil Hospital. The coin was successfully removed by laryngoscopy procedure by Dr. Gangurde and his team including Dr. Sachin Pawar and Dr. Siddharth Shelke.