A medical team from the Pediatric Emergency Hospital of Lima arrived in a timely manner to the city of Cusco to intervene on a one-year-old minor who had respiratory failure due to having a foreign body lodged in the airway. The medical feat was possible thanks to effective coordination between both hospitals, reported the doctor, Carlos Enrique Gamarra Valdivia, executive director of the Cusco Regional Hospital.
The minor with the initials ZGC was referred last Sunday from the Health Center of the province of Acomayo, due to persistent cough and difficulty breathing; The aspiration of a foreign body affected the ventilation of his right lung, the center of the respiratory system, which caused his condition to worsen as the hours passed.
On Sunday, an initial emergency intervention was decided to remove the object, but the minor went into cardio-respiratory arrest, coupled with the lack of instruments for pediatric interventions, which further exacerbated her health condition to the point of assisting her with mechanical ventilation. Within the framework of the reference and counter-reference system Procedures were made to evacuate her to a higher resolution hospital in Lima, But time was of the essence, so efforts were aimed at requesting specialists and instruments.
Thus, on Monday, a traveling medical and nursing team, specialists in pediatric pulmonology, were present in Cusco in order to save the life of the minor. The surgical intervention was performed at the Regional Hospital of Cusco and lasted an hour and a half; The surgical team was made up of health professionals from both hospitals, Dr. Luis Falcón and Dr. Percy Sánchez, specialists in pediatric pulmonology from Lima; Ninoska Mendoza, specialist in pediatric surgery; Dr. María Aguirre and Cinthia Quispe, specialists in anesthesiology; as well as Lic. Melva Dolores Colca Aranda, circulating nurse (Lima).
“It was approximately five in the afternoon on last Saturday, she was playing next to a sack that contained dried tarwi (a legume that is produced in the mountains). When we realized that he was coughing persistently and showing sensations of shortness of breath, “So we took her to the Acomayo health center.”the mother detailed about how it all started.
For his part, Dr. Carlos Gamarra, executive director of the Cusco Regional Hospital, highlighted this type of coordinated work that guarantees the life and health of patients, even more so when they are people with limited economic resources, which, thanks to the Comprehensive Health Insurance (SIS), does not represent any expense for them. Finally, he called on parents to prevent these types of accidents.
