Recently, children's hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City have received many patients with foreign body aspiration, even in cases of severe respiratory failure, purple and life-threatening complications.
Recorded at Ho Chi Minh City Children's Hospital, the unit has just received an emergency care for an 11-month-old patient (Kien Giang province) with a diagnosis of foreign body in the airway and complications of severe respiratory failure. The child was admitted to the hospital with a broken heart, crying, hoarseness, abnormal lungs, and am noises on both sides, soft abdomen, and not large spleen. The foreign object is a piece of chicken bones, measuring 3x7mm.
A week before being hospitalized, after eating fish congee with shredded chicken, the child suddenly cried, coughed, lost sound, breathed a lot, and did not get purple. The child was taken by the family to a local hospital before being transferred to Ho Chi Minh City Children's Hospital.
At Children's Hospital 1, the unit treated an 8-year-old boy (Ben Tre province) with a plastic tube headache in the airway while eating pumped chocolate candy. The medical team examined the airway and removed the foreign object, a plastic tube end about 1cm in the lobes under the right lung.
Exploiting medical history, 2 days after being hospitalized, the child was eating sugarcane in the form of a pump, holding a suction, the child was inhaled with a shot of a pump in the mouth. The child coughed quickly and had no difficulty breathing. After that, the child coughed continuously throughout the night. The child was taken to a local hospital for examination, CT scan recorded a foreign object lowering the fertility of the right lung, collapsed the right lung, airflowing the mediastinum, airflowing under the scalp on both sides and was transferred to Children's Hospital 1.
Before that, the unit also continuously received children for emergency care of foreign objects in the airway. According to Dr. Ly Pham Hoang Vinh - Department of ENT Department of Children's Hospital 1, suffocating foreign objects in the airway is one of the most common dangerous accidents in young children. Some cases can cause respiratory failure, gas overflow and even death.
To reduce the risk of foreign body snoring, parents need to prepare food safely such as cutting food into small pieces, removing bones in fish and chicken, avoiding giving children to eat hard seeds, corn burns, hard candy, and round balls. At the same time, instruct children to eat properly, not only eat but also run, talk, laugh, encourage children to sit still and concentrate while eating. In addition, children should not play with small objects such as coins, Chongqing batteries, balls, and lego slices. Make sure toys are age-appropriate and do not have removable parts.
Parents always observe children, especially when they eat or play; keep away from small objects that can cause drowning. Parents, relatives, and preschool teachers need to know how to provide first aid when children have foreign object choking (back pain - chest pressures in children under 1 year old, Heimlich procedures in older children). If your baby is choking, do not try to hook the foreign object by hand as it can be pushed deeper.
First aid should be given immediately with thoracic patting in young children and Heimlich in older children. Then, take the child to the nearest medical facility for timely treatment.
