10 month old swallows LED bulb, treated at Columbia Asia Hospital

A 10-month-old baby girl who swallowed LED bulb with metal electrodes on Diwali day was brought to Columbia Asia referral Hospital, Yeshwanthpur at 10 PM after having trouble in breathing.

When the child’s mother saw her swallowing the LED bulb, she tried to remove it from the baby’s mouth but unfortunately failed. This LED bulb with its two metallic sharp electrodes that were about 5 centimeters long caused breathing problems in the baby.

A chest X- ray revealed a metallic foreign body in her trachea (wind-pipe) that extended into the right main bronchus. The Child was immediately shifted to operation theatre for emergency Bronchoscopy and for removal of the foreign body. The baby was discharged the very next morning after the foreign body was removed.

“This is a very rare incident and may be the first of the kind in a 10-month-old baby. Generally, when anything is swallowed it goes to the food pipe and then to the stomach but, here it went to the wind pipe and blocked the right lung. When a foreign body goes to the wind pipe it may cause cessation of breathing if it occludes the trachea and can also lead to death. The short and pointed ends of the metal rods could have penetrated the wind pipe and injured major vessels in the chest including aorta,” says Dr. Sai Prasad TR, Senior Consultant- Paediatric Surgery, Columbia Asia Hospital, Yeshwanthpur, Bangalore.

“The Bulb was occluding the right main bronchus that conducts air into the right lung so, we treated this acute emergency with, immediate intervention by endoscopy for removal of the material from the child’s trachea,” added the doctor.

Such rare and potentially perilous incidents require immediate intervention at a hospital which has facilities for emergency treatment, infrastructure and specialists being available even at odd hours, added Dr. Subramanya Mahankali, Consultant-Anesthetist, Columbia Asia Hospital, Yeshwanthpur, Bangalore.

The child’s parents were very grateful to the doctors at Columbia Asia Hospital for immediate recovery of the child.

Diwali is a festival of lights, crackers and sweets. People especially kids, are excited about burning crackers and decorating their houses with LED lights and diyas. But, elders should exercise caution and keep such things away from the reach of little ones.