A team of city-based doctors has saved the life of a 12-year-old boy who had swallowed a nine-centimeter long live fish while playing on the riverside with his friends.
According to the doctors, Anil Barela, a resident of Khargone district, was playing with his friends on May 23.
It was a routine for the kids to swallow live fish, but this time when Anil swallowed the fish, it entered the left lung through the windpipe instead of going to the food pipe.
Anil soon started feeling short of breath, and his breathing rate was reported at 34 per minute, while 17 per minute is considered to be normal.
He had to undergo X-ray when the medical team measured the oxygen level in his blood at 80 percent, 18% lower than normal.
Dr. Pramod Jhawar, chest specialist and bronchoscope expert, said, “X-ray displayed the left lung completely opaque due to the presence of a foreign object.
The fish was live and taking its last breath when the bronchoscopy was done, restricting the functioning of both lungs and resulting in low intake of oxygen.” He said, “It is the first case of this sort that we have come across in 20 years.”
Dr. Jhawar, along with ENT specialist Dr. Nikhil Saxena and anesthetists, performed a 45-minute long surgery to extract the fish from the lungs.
Dr. Saxena said, “We have encountered cases where kids swallow plastic or other materials, but this case was unique in its own way.”
Content contributed by tnn news desk, reported from Indore, India, sourced by tnn
