Docs take out bulb from girl’s throat after nine days

Kolkata: Doctors at the ENT department of the state-run SSKM Hospital performed a critical operation on a four-and-a-half-year-old child after she mistakenly swallowed a small Chinese bulb a few days ago.
Pratima Alemagar, a resident of Narendrapur, swallowed a bulb of about two milimetre in diameter nine days ago while playing with her toys. She was taken by her relatives to the local hospital where the doctor mistakenly diagnosed the bulb being stuck in the stomach and prescribed medicines.
However, after five days, an X-ray revealed the bulb had stuck to the wall of the bronchus. From Sonarpur rural hospital she was referred to the MR Bangur Hospital. As her condition turned critical and she kept coughing copiously, Pratima was brought to the PG Hospital where she was admitted on Wednesday.
The landlady of Pratima’s house was with her as her mother was attending to her month-old brother. Her father is away for work in Nepal.
Doctors performed the surgery — ‘Bronchotomy’ - on Thursday morning. The hour-long surgery was successfully completed and Pratima is now admitted at the emergency ward. She is keeping well but is under 24-hour observation.“The child had been coughing continuously and we had to first put her on nebuliser to control the cough. Since it is difficult to apply a full anesthesia on a child, we had to give her local anesthesia to perform the surgery,” said Arunabha Sengupta, associate professor, ENT department, SSKM Hospital.
According to the doctors, with the filament of the bulb being stuck in her left bronchus, the operation had become critical as the bulb could have hurt the lungs any moment during the surgery.
“A delay in the surgery might have been fatal, as the bulb may have got scattered or broken in one of the vital organs like lungs. We will conduct tests before discharging her,” said Basak.