Chennai,India

When three-year-old Shiva swallowed a sewing machine needle, an X-ray showed that it had entered the boy’s right lung. A medical team at the Institute of Child Health (ICH) in Egmore succeeded in removing it after a 90-minute surgery a week ago. The boy is safe and will be discharged soon.

Shiva had swallowed the needle when he was playing at his grandfather’s house at Kalakkad in Tirunelveli district. When he was taken to a private hospital, the doctors found that the needle had slipped to the lowest lobe of the right lung and removal would be difficult. The case was referred to a tertiary care centre and the family brought Shiva to the ICH. Luckily, the blunt end of the needle was facing the lung tissue and had not caused injury.

S.V. Senthilnathan, professor of paediatric surgery, said that the ICH was equipped with bronchoscopes and pulmonoscopes small enough to insert into the trachea of a three-year-old. “On two occasions, doctors tried to remove the needle using a bronchoscope as surgery could be avoided. But the needle had slipped very low down the lung,” he said.

Apart from cough, Shiva did not suffer from pain but the needle could cause infection and other complications if not removed at the earliest. Finally, the doctors decided on thorocotomy, a surgery to reach into the lung. The operation was done on October 25. The medical team that performed the surgery included Prof. Philip Chandran and Assistant Professors Muthukumaran and Mohan Kumar.

Dr. Shantha Parthiban and her team were in charge of anaesthesia, a tricky procedure as the surgery was on the lung.

As Shiva sleeps soundly on her lap, his mother Esakiammal shows the thick needle that he had swallowed. “I wonder how the doctors managed to remove it. I am very grateful,” she said.

Her husband Pechimuthu, a daily wage earner, has returned home after the surgery but will come to Chennai when his son is discharged.