Doctors in Holguín saved the life of a 17-month-old boy who swallowed a metal spring, reports the local newspaper Now!
The little boy arrived at the Octavio de la Concepción de la Pedraja pediatric hospital with a picture of respiratory distress caused by the spring of a “clothesline stick”.
Using X-rays, the specialists located the object inside the patient’s esophagus, “but due to its anatomical and neighboring relationships with the trachea it caused significant respiratory distress,” Dr. Antonia María Salermo Reyes, head of the Provincial Group of Otorhinolaryngology.
Given this situation, it was decided to take him to the living room to extract the object, but due to the great edema of the esophagus, the intervention could not be performed. It turned out to be necessary to keep him on steroids and antibiotics to explore him again later, according to the ENT Second Degree specialist.
“We observed significant edema of the esophageal mucosa and the foreign body that we extracted, without the child presenting intraoperative complications,” added the doctor.
According to doctors, the most feared inconvenience in these cases is perforation when it involves a wire with two tips attached to the esophageal mucosa.
However, “the risky procedure was carried out with all the characteristic expertise of these professionals from the Holguin pediatric hospital,” the press outlet stated.
These cases are not uncommon in this eastern province. On March 4, another 3-year-old boy was treated after accidentally swallowing a nail.
They save the life of a child who accidentally sucked a nail in Holguín
The doctors managed to extract the nail, lodged in the minor’s right lung, in 25 minutes, the outlet specifies..
The dangers in these cases range from tearing of the mucosa, bleeding, perforation of the trachea and/or bronchi to cardiorespiratory arrest and the death of the patient.
This year, otolaryngology specialists have had two other similar cases, one per month. In January it was a grain of corn; in February a bean; in March the nail, and now the spring.
