Last week, Bobby's condition deteriorated at his home. "His breathlessness increased manifold. We got him admitted to Sion Hospital where he was put on ventilator in the casualty ward. As there were no empty beds in the paediatric intensive care unit, Bobby was transferred to Kohinoor Hospital in Kurla on life support," said Lajjo.
After a month of being ill, Bobby Singh, one and a half years old, could finally heave a sigh of relief. Last week, surgeons removed a sharp piece of betel nut that was lodged near Bobby's right lung.
That little Bobby had swallowed a one cm long piece of betel nut did not strike the doctors for about a month. Residents of Chembur, the baby's parents Lajjo (25) and Vijay (30), had taken Bobby to four private and public hospitals, to ascertain the cause of his incessant coughing and bouts of breathlessness. "Every hospital told us that our son was suffering from some sort of a common cough and cold, asthma or pneumonia. He was given loads of antibiotic medications but that gave no relief to my son," said Lajjo, Bobby's mother.
Last week, Bobby's condition deteriorated at his home. "His breathlessness increased manifold. We got him admitted to Sion Hospital where he was put on ventilator in the casualty ward. As there were no empty beds in the paediatric intensive care unit, Bobby was transferred to Kohinoor Hospital in Kurla on life support," said Lajjo.
The paediatricians conducted a CT scan on Bobby's chest and detected a foreign body lodged in the airway leading up to the right lung. The Ear Nose Throat (ENT) surgeons were summoned for an emergency surgery. "The child needed to be operated upon. He was brought in unconscious and on ventilator to the operation table," said Dr Sanjay Helale, ENT surgeon, Kohinoor Hospital, Kurla.
The betel nut was removed from Bobby's airway in under thirty seconds by a procedure called Bronchoscopy using optical forceps.
"Fortunately, the betel nut was not large enough to completely choke the airway, else the child would not have survived. It miraculously slipped and got lodged on one side of the lung. This left the windpipe and the left side of airway open, so that the child could breathe. As time passed, the right lung became infected and swollen due to the presence of the foreign particle," said Dr Helale.
The life saving surgery left a burning hole in the parents' pockets. Vijay, Bobby's father, is the sole breadwinner of the family, and works in a furniture shop. "It cost us over one and a half lakh rupees to get the operation done. We have pawned our belongings and taken a loan to pay the hospital bills. But nothing is more precious to us than our baby's life," said Lajjo.
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