Doctors safely retrieve open safety pin from 3-year-old’s throat

Doctors safely retrieve open safety pin from 3-year-old’s throat

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

Sagaya Fernando

Mumbai: 29 October 2018

Three-year-old Akansha Nanaware of Ahmednagar in Maharashtra, India, is playful like any child of her age. But when she started crying ceaselessly on October 25 night, and no amount of cajoling and offer of milk could make her stop bawling her worried parents rushed her to a doctor in the vicinity. A CT Scan suggested by the doctor then revealed the gravity of the situation – the toddler had swallowed an open safety pin and it was lodged in her throat, causing immense pain and discomfort to the little one.

Citing the absence of facilities in Ahmednagar to treat the child, the doctors there referred her to King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital in Mumbai, about 261 km away. The very next day, the desperate parents rushed her to the Mumbai hospital in an almost 6 hour’s road journey.

“The girl was playing with her mother and accidentally swallowed a safety pin which had got unfastened from her mother’s mangalsutra (a necklace worn by married women in India). The mother realized something was wrong with her child only after the kid began crying profusely and refused to drink water or milk. The parents then took her daughter to the family doctor, who saw the pin near her chest in the x-ray,” informed Dr Nilam Sathe, Head of the Ear Nose and Throat Department of KEM Hospital, who led the team that conducted the retrieval procedure.

“On going through the scan reports, it was seen that an open safety pin was lodged in the thorax near the start of the esophagus. We decided to do an emergency endoscopy to retrieve the pin to avoid tear of the esophagus tissue which could result in the formation of pus and infection proving fatal to the child,” said Dr Sathe.

She added, “The endoscopy was conducted on October 27th morning, and the safety pin was successfully removed without causing any internal injury to the child. Had the safety pin not been removed on time, the infant could have died of internal bleeding. After the procedure, for one day we did not give her anything by mouth, and the next day morning we started giving her a liquid diet and now she is having everything as normal.”

“Once the foreign body was removed, Akansha became her normal self. She is absolutely fine now,” said Dr Sathe.