Madurai: Kid swallows battery, doctors remove it

MADURAI: Doctors at the pediatric department of Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai safely removed a lithium button cell or watch battery without surgery from a two-year-old boy from A.Kombai village in Dindigul district after he had accidentally swallowed it on Thursday.
The child, A Aadheeswaran, the fourth child of his parents, A Alagarsamy and A Periyakandhi, on Wednesday, swallowed a button cell by accident when he found it while playing at his house with friends.It was the size of a one-rupee coin. His parents, who are woodcutters, were at work when the incident happened. “As one of the children in the group noticed that my son swallowed the battery, they immediately called us for help. We rushed him to the Dindigul Government Hospital as he was having breathing difficulties but then he was referred to GRH in Madurai for better facilities,” Alagarsamy told TOI.
An X-ray revealed that the coin-shaped battery that was roughly around 20 mm in diameter and around 2 mm in height was lodged vertically in the lower part of the boy’s oesophagus or food pipe. “A team of doctors from the pediatric department and the department of gastro-enterology performed a minimally invasive procedure on Thursday afternoon to remove the foreign body,” said GRH dean Dr J Sangumani.
The doctors said that an endoscopic tube was inserted through the boy’s mouth to remove the battery. There was no complications post the procedure and the boy could also breathe without any respiratory support, doctors added. However, he has been advised not to intake any liquid or solid food for a few days and is being given IV drips.