A five-centimetre-long hairpin was removed from the left trachea (internal pulmonary airway) of a three-year-old girl at the city’s Jehangir Hospital. Before the procedure, the child had been coughing constantly for two weeks, so her parents sought help at multiple medical facilities, but the child did not respond to routine medications.
However, clinical evaluation and chest X-ray revealed a hairpin-like foreign body in her left bronchus. She was then admitted to pediatric intensive care.
Pediatric surgeon Dr Dasmeet Singh, under whom the three-year-old was under supervision, said: “The child had already suffered for two weeks from the resulting infection and swelling of the airways.” Dr. Singh added that treatment was started with antibiotics and supportive therapy to reduce swelling and make the removal process less risky.
The patient was taken for removal of the tracheostomy and placed under general anesthesia (GA). “This procedure is an extremely high-risk procedure and requires careful planning and execution between the pediatric surgeon and anesthesiologist in the operating room. The airways can be injured or torn while trying to remove the long, sharp metal foreign body, or they can go into spasm and the risk to life is real,” Dr. Singh said.
With the patient positioned under GA and positioned appropriately to align the airway and scope, a custom-designed rigid bronchoscope was inserted into the left bronchus. The foreign body is then removed en masse with a bronchoscope. After safe extraction and following the procedure, the child’s vital signs remained stable, making the postoperative recovery uneventful, and the lung infection responded quickly to treatment.
“After a short course of antibiotics and nebulizer treatment, the child showed marked improvement with improvement in respiratory symptoms and improvement in air intake on the left side. Repeated chest
He pointed out, “Awareness must be spread so that parents make a special effort to make their homes safe for children. Swallowed or inhaled foreign objects can pose a great danger to a child. This child survived, but not all children survived. They can choke on such small objects, which could lead to a life-threatening emergency.”
(Tags for translation) Hairpin removal from the bronchus
