A 13-month-old baby who swallowed a giant, U-shaped nail unbelievably had no symptoms when his parents brought him to the emergency room.
The shocking case was recently recounted in a medical journal, where the complicated removal process was detailed, Need To Know reports.
Noting that foreign body injection is common amongst infants, doctors explained that this was a particularly difficult case because of the size and shape of the nail ingested.
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In fact, had the baby not been witnessed swallowing the large nail while playing outside, there is every possibility that it could have remained in his throat for some time as he had no obvious symptoms.
The otolaryngology team – based in New York, US – which specialises in diseases of the ear, nose and throat, were able to identify the nail via an X-ray.
Doctors explained: “Examination showed a comfortably resting child without fever, drooling, cough, stridor, or respiratory distress.
“A chest X-ray demonstrated a radio-opaque object in the shape of a ‘U’, located in the cervical oesophagus.”
While medics initially tried to remove the nail using endoscopic forceps, as it was partially embedded in the wall of the child’s throat, they were met with “significant resistance”.
That is when a secondary, gastroenterology team were called to treat the youngster and with the help of the otolaryngology team used a combination of techniques to treat what was described as a medical emergency.
Doctors explained that flexibility was key in extracting the nail, something that the gastroenterology team were able to recognise in with their expertise in the digestive system.
They added: “They then performed endoscopic extraction using a grasping forceps and latex hood protector.
“The availability of gastroenterology additionally allowed otolaryngology to confidently dislodge the object distally into the thoracic oesophagus, with the knowledge that they were able to assist us with retrieval.”
Thankfully, the baby went on to make a full recovery.
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