Kerala: Fish bone removed from respiratory track of toddler

Thiruvananthapuram: A fish bone, which got embedded in the respiratory track of a 3-year-old baby girl causing breathlessness for about two months, was removed by doctors at a government hospital here in a surgical procedure.

The child, Arushi, had been discharged from the SAT Hospital, part of the government medical college hospital, where the procedure was performed on August 16, hospital sources said on Friday.

Parents of the child said since the past two months she had been suffering from breathlessness.

Though she was taken to various hospitals in Kollam and in the state capital, she did not get any relief.

The parents then brought her to the SAT Hospital where an x-ray examination revealed that there was some obstruction in her respiratory track.

A team of doctors then performed 'bronchoscopy' under anaesthesia and identified the obstruction as fish bone and removed it, relieving the child of the breathing trouble.

'The big fish bone had blocked almost 50 per cent of the trachea (wind pipe). There was inflammation of the respiratory track due to which it had to be carefully removed', hospital sources said.

The baby used to take food on her own and would have inadvertently swallowed the fish bone, they added.