Keep Kids away from Small Objects

The life of an 18-month-old infant was in real danger after he swallowed a battery whose contents seeped into his body causing his esophagus to puncture. He was rushed to the operating room where specialists from ENT, Gastroenterology and the Surgical Team succeeded in extracting the round battery from the child’s throat. He remained under observation in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

Up until he arrived at the hospital, the toxic contents of the battery had begun to seep into his body causing a rupture in the esophagus. This led to considerable damage which was just a few millimeters from the infant’s main blood vessels. Following the surgery, he was hospitalized for three weeks for monitoring until he was declared out of danger.

Physicians at Schneider cautioned parents, “We repeat a warning to parents about the danger of allowing children near small objects that they can swallow and inhale. Infants and children do not have the ability to handle the swallowing and breathing mechanism simultaneously, which means that any object put in the mouth can enter the airway passages. If a child swallows a foreign object, medical assistance should be summoned or the child brought immediately to hospital. Should there be any suspicion that a battery has been swallowed, the child must receive first aid without delay to minimize any damage from its contents.”