Picking up a sharp piece of herringbone in a 2-year-old baby’s larynx

NDP pediatric patient (2 years old, residing in Hoang Mai town, Nghe An province), was admitted to the hospital with a hoarse cough, wheezing, runny nose in mucus, and less pink mucous membranes.

The patient’s family said: The patient was eating rice and fish when he choked, turned purple, and had a runny nose. Seeing that the patient was increasingly having difficulty breathing, accompanied by hoarseness, the family rushed to the district hospital near the house for treatment.

Here, the patient still had difficulty breathing and hoarseness, so he was transferred to Nghe An Obstetrics and Children’s Hospital.

Through examination, the doctor of Otolaryngology Department endoscopically discovered a white foreign body, which is a fish bone, occupying most of the trachea, inserted across the lower glottis. Immediately, the doctor used the scope and pliers to safely remove the fishbone from the patient’s airway.

BSCKI. Trinh Thanh Hung, Department of Otolaryngology, said: “If this patient’s case is not detected in time and taken out endoscopically, it will be very dangerous, possibly causing severe infection and perforation of the trachea… The child is still small, only 2 years old, so we have to manipulate it carefully and skillfully to avoid causing damage to the child’s trachea.”

According to Dr. Hung, the hospital has encountered many cases of young children choking on foreign bodies such as fish bones, buttons, nuts, coins… If the foreign body is large, it can cause airway obstruction and death.

Therefore, parents need to control small items, avoid letting children put them in their mouths. When feeding young children, do not force them to eat when crying or laughing because it is easy to choke.

In addition, young children have not yet formed a reflex to choose bones when eating, so when preparing food for babies, parents must be absolutely careful. In case the child chokes while eating, it is necessary to think about the possibility that the baby has swallowed a foreign object.

If the child is found to have an abnormal phenomenon, the parent should take it to the nearest medical facility, clearly stating the risk factors so that the child can be examined and intervened in a timely manner.