Warning to parents over grapes after two deaths

Doctors advise fruit should be chopped into quarters

PARENTS have been warned that children choking on grapes is the third most common cause of fatal choking episodes in children and has been responsible for the deaths of two youngsters in Scotland.

Doctors are warning parents to chop the fruit into quarters to prevent them becoming wedged in youngsters’ throats.

Research published today in BMJ journal, Archives of Disease in Childhood, warns that the shape and smooth surface of grapes mean they are “ideally suited to cause obstruction of a paediatric airway”.

It highlights the cases of three children in Aberdeen who were rushed to hospital after choking on grapes.

In the first incident, a five-yearold boy had been eating whole grapes at an after-school club when he began to choke. First aid, including back blows and suction, were attempted by staff and ambulance technicians who were on the scene within minutes, but the grape could not be dislodged and the boy suffered cardiac arrest.

A paramedic who met the crew en route to hospital was able to remove the grape from the boy’s airway, but despite resuscitation efforts he never regained consciousness and died in the Paediatric Emergency Department at the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital.

In a second incident, a 17-monthold boy was at home eating sandwiches and fruits with his family when he began choking on a grape. After his parents dialled 999, he was rushed to the local children’s hospital but attempts to clear his airway failed and he was later pronounced dead following transfer to the RACH.

The third case involved a two-year-old boy who was snacking on grapes during a family outing to the park. When he began choking, the Heimlich manoeuvre was performed without success. He “quickly became floppy and unresponsive” and his family carried him to a nearby house where an ambulance was called.

Fortunately, one was close by and paramedics were able to remove grape trapped in the boy’s airway quickly using a procedure known as direct laryngoscopy, before administering oxygen.

Although the boy suffered two brief seizures en route to hospital and there were “clear signs” of fluid on his brain and in his lungs, there was no permanent brain damage and the boy was discharged from hospital “alert and playing normally”.

The study, authored by Aberdeen medics Dr Jamie Cooper and Dr Amy Lumsden, stresses that grapes are the third most common cause of food-related choking among children under-five after hot dogs and sweets.

However, they said there was not enough public awareness of the danger, and have written to the Scottish Government to highlight the issue.

They write: “There is general awareness of the need to supervise young children when they are eating and to get small solid objects, and some foods such as nuts, promptly out of the mouths of small children; but knowledge of the dangers posed by grapes and other similar foods is not widespread.”

Choking hazard warnings should be added to packaging on foodstuffs including grapes and cherry tomatoes, they say.

Leaflets highlighting the dangers are distributed by NHS Health Scotland to pregnant women them to “halve or chop” such items.

Dr Julie-Ann Maney, of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: “Sadly situations like those outlined in this paper are not all that uncommon.

“To prevent accidents like these from happening, I would urge all parents to cut food up into small pieces to avoid a seemingly harmless situation turning into a deadly one.”

‘‘ I would urge all parents to cut food up into small pieces to avoid a harmless situation turning into deadly one

A FOOTBALL boss has backed a campaign to save a threatened children’s ward, as players paid a Christmas visit to young patients.

St Mirren chief executive Tony Fitzpatrick, a legend with the club as a player, said he was horrified by the proposals to close Ward 15 at the Royal Alexandra Hospital.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde launched a consultation on the proposals in September.

Yesterday, Mr Fitzpatrick and the players visited Ward 15 of the hospital, where they handed out selection boxes and copies of Tony’s new children’s book, The Dream You Can Do This.

Mr Fitzpatrick, who lost his own son, Tony Junior, to acute myeloid leukaemia when he was just six-and-a-half, said he had huge sympathy for parents worried about losing the facility.

Mr Fitzpatrick said: “It’s unbelievable to think about closing a children’s ward – that just can’t be allowed to happen.”

Health bosses say patients will benefit from the move.