15-year-old boy breathes easy six years after twig got stuck in his nose

"15-year-old boy breathes easy six years after twig got stuck in his nose"

Video Link:- https://youtu.be/N0aCZbavp2w

Sagaya Fernando

Mumbai: August 28, 2018

For six long years, 15-year-old Saroj Savant of Nepal had to endure inflammation and pain after he fell from a tree and a twig pierced through his nose. Doctors in Nepal operated and took out half of the twig that was protruding out, but the remaining portion stuck deep inside the nose could not be removed by the several doctors whom he had visited in his home country.

Finally, his family members brought him to Sassoon General Hospital in Pune, India, over 1500 km south, where the doctors succeeded in removing the broken twig piece in a challenging endoscopic surgery recently.

“Saroj came to the Ear Nose and Throat Out-Patient Department of our hospital with a history of falling off from a tree 6 years ago and complaint of foul-smelling discharge from his nose and mouth,” informed Dr Samir Joshi head of the ENT Department, saying that while the boy survived the fall, a wooden piece pierced his eyes via the nose to the vertebral column.

“The patient visited local hospitals in Nepal where they removed part of impacted wooden stick from the inner side of the left eye and was discharged with oral medication. He then consulted many doctors in Nepal, but not satisfied with the treatment finally approached us. On conducting a CT scan, we found a foreign body lodged in the nose extending up to oropharynx. We immediately decided to remove the foreign body at the earliest,” said Dr Joshi.

“An endoscopy surgery was carried out to remove the wedged wood which was 8 centimetres long. We had to struggle for half an hour to remove the wooden piece. The surgery was risky as it could have led to the breaking of the vertebral column, which could have led to paralysis of the patient,” added Dr Joshi, who along with surgeons Dr Rahul Thakur and Dr Gunit Kaur, and anaesthetist Dr Prajakta conducted the procedure.

He said that this was a very rare case as the foreign body remained at a critical place for around six years.

“The boy had infections and his face had injury marks from the accident. However, after the surgery, the boy is now stable. The nose and eyes were initially in a bandage. After a few days, we removed it and the boy is now able to breathe normally,” said Dr Joshi