Broken vaccine needle removed from newborn’s butt
A 2-cm-long broken vaccine needle remained stuck inside a newborn’s bottom, but no one knew until he developed fever and swelling in his right thigh, 21 days after his birth. An X-ray and CT scan showed doctors the presence of the needle dangerously close to the bone. Immediately, they performed a two-hour long surgery to remove the needle.
A senior doctor said the child was stable and recovering in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Wadia Hospital.
The baby’s mother, Aastha Sudhakar Pashte, 28, said doctors had asked them to vaccinate the baby three days after his birth, so he was taken to a nearby clinic for an intra-muscular vaccine injection. “The child seemed fine but when he was 21 days old, he developed fever and his right thigh was swollen. Scared, we took him to a private clinic in Chembur,” she said.
“Doctors thought it was flu and gave medicine for it, but the child did not show any improvement, so we took him to Wadia Hospital. It was shocking to hear the doctors at Wadia saying a broken vaccine needle was stuck inside his left buttock, because of which he cried whenever it was touched during massage. We are planning to file a case against the clinic once our baby is discharged from the hospital,” Pashte said.
Dr Pradnya Bendre, a paediatric surgeon, said they treated the baby for ‘osteomyelitis’ (bone infection). But later, a CT scan revealed the presence of the needle in the left buttock. On July 10, surgery was performed to remove the needle.
“The baby had to undergo intraoperative surgery for removal of foreign body. It was difficult to find the exact location; hence multiple X-rays were done to find the position of the needle. It was two hours before the needle was removed under C-arm guidance localisations. The 2cm-long object was embedded in the capsule of the left hip joint and the baby has recovered uneventfully, without complications,” said Dr Bendre.
Dr Minnie Bodhanwala, chief executive officer of Wadia Hospital, said that luckily the child was diagnosed in time. “We want to highlight the issue so that such a blunder is not repeated in future," she said.