4-yr-old swallows whistle, undergoes surgery

NEW DELHI: Basmina, a housewife in Haryana’s Nuh district, was busy with Eid festivities on Saturday when she heard her four-year-old son Sahim crying. Curiously, each time he took a breath, Basmina heard a squeak, like that of a whistle. As he cried louder and louder, the squeaks too became louder.

It took her a while to figure out that while she was busy in the kitchen or attending to guests, her son had swallowed the whistle attached to a new pair of shoes that his father had gifted him for Eid.

“He started crying at 8pm. When I saw his shoe on the side, I realised what he had done and called the family. The local clinics were shut for Eid, and we were told by our village elders to rush him to Delhi,” Basmina, a resident of Malab village, said.

The family said after a long drive on a neighbour’s mini truck, they reached Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at 3.30am on Sunday. At 5am, Sahim was taken for a bronchoscopy to remove the whistle, which was partially blocking his airway. Doctors were able to successfully remove the whistle, and the four-yearold is currently admitted to the hospital’s mother and child block. Bronchoscopy is an endoscopic technique of visualising the inside of the airways for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Doctors said it is a common technique to remove objects ingested by children, which get logged in the airway.

Dr Prabudh Goel, assistant professor (paediatric surgery), AIIMS, who performed the surgery, said that as soon as Sahim was brought to AIIMS he was rushed for surgery and the process took nearly an hour. “It is very important for such children to be given immediate medical attention. There have been cases where delays have caused brain damage and even death. The child is under observation and we are hoping to discharge him by Tuesday,” Dr Goel said.