Doc Screamed When She Saw A Pendant In 16-Month-Old's X-Ray
Small children tend to eat any object found around them. Medical experts aver that they also swallow them, which would make the next visit to the emergency room mandatory.
Recently, a 16-month-old boy in Saudi Arabia swallowed his sister's SpongeBob pendant, after which he was rushed to the hospital. The child's x-rays of the chest shot at King Abdulaziz University Hospital in Jeddah revealed a popular cartoon character smiling as well as sticking out its tongue, according to theblaze.com.
Dr Ghofran Ageely, who was a radiology resident at the King Abdulaziz University Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, confessed that she screamed when she read the X-ray, according to dailymail.com.
At first, she suspected that it was a pin or hair accessory. "Then I opened the frontal view and was shocked, "SpongeBob", I screamed," she said. "I was amazed by the visible details, you can see his freckles, shoes and fingers."
Still, the doctors could retrieve the object from his throat as well as esophagus and then send him back home.
The situation is not too uncommon. Experts at Radiopedia.org confirm that it is a frequent occurrence for children whose ages range between six months to six years.
Children most often swallow small coins, as well toys, batteries and bones. Most objects can go through the stomach, while about 80% pass through the stomach spontaneously.
The experts note: "Batteries have a high rate of complication and should be urgently removed." It is a matter of concern that 50% of children are asymptomatic about the objects, yet it is important to remove them, in order to keep the children safe.
Most of the objects in the world are commonly consumed, as the children tend to get curious about the world and tend to "put anything and everything into their mouth", and will often inadvertently swallow them.
The usual practice to treat them is to take pictures with plain films of the chest and abdomen to identify foreign bodies, so that they can be diagnosed and treated.
