8-year-old gets fresh lease of life after toy stuck near lungs removed

Kolkata: Calcutta Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) has successfully removed a toy whistle that got stuck near the lungs of an 8-year-old girl from Nadia.

The victim, Rima Khatun (8), a resident of Nadia's Hogalberia village had swallowed a toy whistle around 12 days ago while she was visiting one of her relatives' house at Domkal in Murshidabad. She did not inform the matter to her family members. The girl later returned home with her parents and started complaining of severe respiratory distress and pain in her throat.

The victim's parents took her to Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital (MMCH) where the doctors advised her parents to shift the girl to any of the city's medical colleges.

The family members finally brought the patient to Calcutta Medical College and Hospital on last Sunday.

The girl was admitted to the ENT department of the hospital after a brief check up. The patient had developed a severe respiratory distress by the time she got admission.

The doctors performed bronchoscopy on the patient and found that a toy whistle that she swallowed had broken into three pieces and were lying close to her lungs.

A team of doctors on Tuesday performed a surgery on the patient for nearly 40 minutes and successfully removed the pieces of the whistle.

A fresh lease of life has been given to the girl who is recovering well, sources in the hospital said.

According to a senior official of CMCH, if there was any more delay in taking the patient to the hospital, her life would have been at stake. The doctors at the hospital suspect that she might have swallowed the toy during her attempt to whistle it. The whistle might have damaged the lungs if it remained near the lungs for a longer period of time, apprehend the doctors who carried out the surgery.

"There is nothing to worry about as the whistle was successfully removed from her body. It became a little difficult for the doctors to carry out the surgery as the toy whistle had been broken into three pieces after she swallowed," a senior official of the CMCH said.

The official added the patient is out of danger and has been kept under observation. She might be released from the hospital in the next few days depending on her health condition.