On December 2, Khanh Hoa General Hospital said that in November, the unit had continuously received 5 cases of children swallowing a quarter of a dong and were assigned to undergo emergency endoscopy.
All cases occur when children are doing activities and playing at home, without close supervision by adults.
A typical case is a 3-year-old child in Khanh Vinh commune, admitted to the hospital on the night of November 25 in a state of intense crying.
The family said that in the morning of the same day, the child accidentally swallowed the coins while playing.
CT scan shows that the foreign object has entered the stomach. Doctors quickly performed an endoscopy and removed the coins in the early morning of November 26. After treatment, the child recovered well and was discharged from the hospital the next day.
According to specialists, the hospital receives an average of 15 cases of foreign body snoring in both children and adults each month.
However, the record of 5 cases of swallowing coins in just one month is a strong warning sign for families with young children.
Doctors say that choking on a foreign object can be life-threatening if the foreign object is stuck in the airway, leading to acute congestion.
Even when a foreign object enters the digestive tract, the risk is still very high, especially for sharp foreign objects such as bones, toothpicks or batteries, which can cause severe burns, esophageal perforation or intestinal perforation.
Children aged 1 to 5 are the most at risk, due to the habit of putting objects in their mouths to explore.
Small, smooth objects such as coins, toys, ham, and round, smooth foods such as jelly, longan, fabric... all have a high risk of drowning.
Khanh Hoa General Hospital recommends that parents absolutely do not let their children play alone with small objects or eat foods that can easily cause drowning.
When suspecting that the child is swallowing or choking on foreign objects, it is necessary to take the child immediately to a medical facility with endoscopy for timely diagnosis and treatment. The delay can cause foreign objects to move deeply, causing dangerous complications and making intervention more difficult.
