A two-year-old with a persistent cough was found to have a TV remote bulb in their lung. Doctors at Amrita Hospital, Faridabad, performed a complex emergency bronchoscopy, successfully removing the object and saving the child's life.
A two-year-old child was brought to Amrita Hospital in Faridabad after what initially appeared to be a persistent cough turned into a critical airway emergency requiring urgent medical intervention. The toddler was brought to the hospital's Emergency Department on May 11 with symptoms including persistent cough, noisy breathing, breathing difficulty, and intermittent fever. According to doctors, the symptoms had continued for nearly a week.
The family had initially consulted a local paediatrician after the child's cough failed to improve. During the medical evaluation, the parents recalled an earlier incident in which the child may have accidentally choked on a small bulb-like component from a television remote control. Suspecting that the child may have aspirated a foreign body--meaning the object had entered the airway instead of the food pipe--the paediatrician immediately referred the child to Amrita Hospital for urgent treatment.
A Complex Diagnosis
Further investigations revealed that the object had travelled deep into the right lower bronchus, a narrow air passage within the lung. Doctors said the situation was particularly complex because the foreign body contained metallic wire elements along with a fragile glass component. The prolonged presence of the object inside the airway had also led to the formation of granulation tissue, making the removal procedure more difficult and risky.
Multidisciplinary Emergency Intervention
Recognising the potential danger of airway injury, bleeding, and complete obstruction, multiple speciality teams coordinated rapidly to prepare for an emergency bronchoscopy procedure in the operating room. The procedure involved a multidisciplinary team of experts from Pediatric Pulmonology, Adult Pulmonology, Pediatric Anaesthesia and ENT services. Key specialists involved in the procedure included Dr Maninder Dhaliwal, Dr Sourabh Pahuja, and Dr Ridhima Bhatia.
Successful Outcome and A Word of Caution
Doctors used advanced bronchoscopy techniques to carefully extract the foreign object while minimising trauma to the child's airway. Following the successful removal of the obstruction, the child experienced immediate relief and recovered well enough to be discharged within a day. Doctors cautioned that such cases can become life-threatening if warning signs are ignored or treatment is delayed. They advised parents to seek immediate medical attention if a child develops persistent coughing, noisy breathing, or sudden breathing difficulty after a choking episode.
"This case was a reminder that in pediatric airway emergencies, timing and teamwork can be the difference between crisis and recovery," said the treating team. (ANI)
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