Krishna Yadav (2) was only eating peanuts with his friends at home, but before his parents could even fathom what had happened, Krishna was feeling breathless. He was rushed to the closest hospital, Employees State Insurance Scheme (ESIS) Hospital in Andheri, where doctors confirmed that he had suffered a cardiac arrest.
“There were other children at home and they were munching on peanuts when one of them casually slapped him on the back. Right after, he started coughing and feeling breathless. We immediately rushed him to the closest hospital. The doctors conducted an X-ray, but could not find anything and suggested we go to a bigger hospital,” said Satyapal Yadav, Krishna’s father.
Mr Yadav then took his two-year-old to Seven Hills Hospital on referral from ESIS Hospital. However, the doctors at Seven Hills too informed the parents that the chances of the child’s survival were thin. “Though the hospital admitted Krishna, we were duly explained the risk involved and told that his chances of making it were only about 10 per cent,” said Mr Yadav.
The doctors performed a high resolution CT Scan that showed that there were two large pieces of peanuts lodged to the right side of the lung and one on the left side of the lung.
“The child was brought to us in a very critical condition. He was incubated and on ventilator. We conducted a high resolution CT scan to identify the location of the foreign body — the peanuts. After we found where the foreign body was, we conducted a bronchoscopy to resuscitate the child,” said Dr Ashwini Kumar Mehta, consultant ENT at Seven Hills Hospital.
In bronchoscopy, an instrument (bronchoscope) is inserted into the airways, usually through the nose or mouth. This allows the doctor to examine the patient’s airways for abnormalities such as foreign bodies, bleeding, tumours, or inflammation.
Consultant paediatrician, Seven Hills Hospital Dr Uday Nadkarni said, “It was a rare case. But thankfully we were able to revive the child.”