On August 23, Children's Hospital 2 received an urgent request for professional support from the City Children's Hospital to handle a 7-month-old child with a foreign body in the airway. The child is suffering from severe respiratory failure, requires ventilation and broad-spectrum antibiotic treatment.
According to medical history, about 7 days before being admitted to the hospital, the baby was fed eel porridge by his family. Although the bones had been removed, some bone fragments remained. After eating, the baby suddenly coughed violently, turned purple. The family patted his back and used their hands to hook his throat but could not remove the foreign object.
The baby was taken to a private clinic for treatment but the condition did not improve. The increasing cough and wheezing caused the family to transfer the baby to the City Children's Hospital.
Here, doctors performed endoscopic intervention but encountered many difficulties. The foreign object had been in the airway for many days, causing the patient to have increased mucus secretion, dense pseudomembrane cover. The bone fragments clung tightly to the root bronchial mucosa on both sides and a deep right lobe.
Faced with the complicated situation, Children's Hospital 2 sent an experienced respiratory endoscopy team along with a soft-tube bronchoscopy system and interventional equipment to support.
After endoscopy, doctors removed all 3 foreign object fragments. Among them, one fragment was located in the right medial bronchi, one fragment in the left root bronchi and the remaining fragment at the right S9 segmental bronchial opening.
Extracting foreign objects and cleaning the airway helped stabilize the patient's respiratory condition temporarily. The ventilator parameters were gradually reduced. The baby continued to be treated and monitored at the City Children's Hospital.
BS.CK2 Nguyen Hoang Phong, Head of Respiratory Department 1, Children's Hospital 2, said that foreign objects in the airway, especially small, sharp objects such as eel bones, fish bones, shrimp shells..., are emergency conditions that need to be treated promptly.
In 7-month-old children, the chewing, swallowing and protective reflexes of the airway are not complete, so the risk of choking is high, especially in the early stages of weaning.
According to doctors, eel bones are particularly dangerous due to small, slippery bone segments but with sharp edges and thorns. When entering the airway, these sharp parts can penetrate deep into the mucous membrane, causing scratches and tears of the air-bronchial mucosa.
If foreign objects are missed for a long time, children are at risk of infection, necrosis, lung abscesses, even puncture of airways and causing ventriculitis, life-threatening.
Experts recommend that parents carefully check food before feeding their children, especially foods with bones or hard shells such as eels, fish, shrimp, and crabs.
For newly weaning children, food needs to be chopped, sifted finely or ground. Do not let children eat alone, eat while playing, laughing or eating while crying.
When the child shows signs of hoarseness, cyanosis, or suspected foreign object choking, it is necessary to quickly take the child to a medical facility for examination and treatment. Parents should not use their hands to hook the throat because it can push the foreign object deeper or damage the mucous membrane of the airway.
