On the evening of March 10, Hanoi Children's Hospital said that the hospital's Department of Gastroenterology had just successfully performed an endoscopy to rescue patient V.K.V (4 years old, Hanoi) who swallowed the right Chuc Cam battery - a foreign object that was considered extremely dangerous if not treated promptly.
According to the family, at around 2:00 p.m. on March 8, baby V accidentally swallowed a choke battery. The family quickly took the child to a nearby hospital, took an X-ray and discovered a foreign object in the esophagus at the level of the collarbone.
At around 5:30 p.m., the child was transferred to Hanoi Children's Hospital. Recognizing the level of danger, the child was examined and consulted immediately by a team of endoscopists - anesthesiologists - surgery. The doctors assessed the danger of the foreign object and required emergency endoscopy.
According to doctors, chamomile batteries are not only a common foreign object but can also cause severe damage in just the first few hours, due to their corrosion and electrical current mechanism, so they will cause ulceration leading to a hole very early, especially a large battery in the esophagus like this child's.
When conducting an endoscopy, the doctors found that the surrounding esophagus around the battery had all ulcers, the upper and lower foreign objects were tightly bonded, reaching the entire path out and down the stomach.
Efforts to remove the battery were difficult. The team used a soft endoscopic tube and a hard endoscopic tube with one hole to remove it, but both were stuck due to narrow output.
After 3 hours of effort and application of many different methods, the team and Doctor Quach Van Nam (Department of Chemistry) successfully removed the foreign object without requiring open surgery, helping the child avoid the risk of esophageal perforation and recover better after the intervention.
According to Dr. Ninh Quoc Dat - Hanoi Children's Hospital, chamomile batteries are not only a common foreign object but can also cause severe damage in just the first few hours due to the negative and positive cucums of the batteries being close together. When swallowed into the digestive tract, when exposed to water, the dichament will produce electricity, release quickly and a lot of hydroxyl products (OH), increase the pH quickly, cause strong erosion, easily admit the esophagus, admit the duodenum, the major artery, stomach perforation, etc.
In severe cases, death can occur within 2 hours. In the long run, it is easy to cause narrow scars, leaks... in the digestive tract.
The doctor also said that in the US, there are an average of 3,000 cases of swallowing chamomile batteries every year, which is so dangerous that they set up a hotline that specializes in receiving emergency calls for this foreign object, called the National Battery Ingestion Hotline (NBIH).
Hanoi Children's Hospital recommends that parents be especially careful with these small objects but pose a great risk. If you discover signs of swallowing foreign objects in your baby, contact the nearest medical facility for timely treatment.
