NE HEALTH BUREAU
CHENNAI, MAY 2
A five-year-old poor boy had a miraculous escape when an LED bulb swallowed by him a month ago was removed from his lungs through bronchoscopy at Sri Ramachandra Hospital here.
The boy was brought to the medical college hospital’s outpatient department (OPD) with refractory cough and breathing difficulty last Friday. The child who had swallowed a foreign object was admitted to another hospital and after two attempts of bronchoscopic removal failed was advised an open chest surgery after two weeks. Fearing a major surgery the boy was brought to Sri Ramachandra Hospital where HoD paediatric surgery Dr. R. Madhu and his team took a CT scan and found an LED bulb deposited in the distal breathing tube branch (segmental bronchus). Parents were explained of the plan of removal through bronchoscopy failing which an open chest surgery and postoperative ICU and ventilation.
With excellent anaesthesia support headed by Dr Aruna Parameswari, HoD, Anaesthesia paediatric surgeons removed the LED bulb safely. The child did not require ICU or ventilation and has since been discharged.
