5-year-old child swallows 22 mm diameter coin, squirms in pain for 24 hours before doctor removes it in a matter of minutes

 5-year-old child swallows 22 mm diameter coin, squirms in pain for 24 hours before doctor removes it in a matter of minutes

Sagaya Fernando

Mumbai: 3 February 2021

 

5-year-old Hammad of Meerut city in Uttar Pradesh, India, while playing, innocently swallowed a 22 millimeter diameter Rs 5 coin not knowing the deadly consequences of it, on January 27.

 

His parents came to know about it later only when the child started crying of pain in his stomach. On coming to know that he had swallowed a coin, they initially tried to flush it out of his body by giving laxatives and liquids to the child.

 

But, when the coin did not come out naturally, and was causing immense pain in the abdomen of the child, the next day the parents rushed him to Pediatric Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist Dr Shubham Jain, who runs the Shubham Hospital & Child Care Centre in Meerut.

 

“The 5-year-old child weighing around 15 kg was brought to me on January 28 after 24 hours of him ingesting the Rs 5 coin. The child swallowed the coin on January 27 at around 12 in the afternoon, and post-ingestion the parents tried to remove the coin by giving laxatives and liquids so that the coin could come out naturally in the stool. But as the coin didn’t come out naturally and was causing pain in the child’s abdomen and difficulty in swallowing food, the parents brought him to me,” said Dr Jain. 

 

“On January 28 at around 4 pm, the coin was successfully removed by endoscopy process without causing any damage to the internal organs of the child. Special care was taken because of the child’s tender age and slender weight,” said Dr Jain.

 

“The Rs 5 coin has blunt edges due to which ulcers were formed inside the child’s abdomen. This is the reason that gastroscope should be used to remove any foreign body,” said Dr Jain, who is incidentally Meerut’s first Pediatric Gastroenterologist & Hepatologist.

 

“Right now the child is absolutely fine and there is no pain in the abdomen,” he added.