KMC docs find innovative ways to remove magnet from girls windpipe

Mangaluru: After a nine-year old girl was brought to the hospital with respiratory problems which she had developed after inhaled a toy magnet while playing at home.

After examining the situation, the doctors found out that the object was stuck in the windpipe. An x-ray showed the magnet was lodged in the primary bronchi of the right lung.

Dr Jayateertha Joshi, paediatric surgeon, decided to immediately shift the child to the operation theatre and perform a bronchoscope, a procedure to check for abnormalities such as injury and bleeding to the girl’s airways. “We were presented with several challenges while dealing with this case,” said Joshi.

Joshi revealed that the team decided to obtain a stronger magnet and move the one lodged in the girl’s windpipe to the surface, while keeping the bronchoscope in the windpipe to track the object.

“When it reached the inlet of the wind pipe, removal became easy,” Joshi said. “The child was discharged the next day.”