SGPGIMS doctors end toddler’s 20-day respiratory ordeal

Doctors at SGPGIMS removed a foreign body from a 15-month-old's airway, ending weeks of distress. Parents urged to monitor young children closely.

Doctors at the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) successfully removed a long-standing foreign body lodged in the airway of a 15-month-old child from Jaunpur district, bringing relief after nearly three weeks of persistent cough, fever and breathing distress.

The foreign body removed from the airway of the child (HT Photo)

According to doctors from the department of paediatric surgical superspecialities, the child was initially treated elsewhere with medicines for respiratory infection. However, the symptoms failed to subside as the actual cause — a foreign object stuck in the left main bronchus — remained undiagnosed.

After the child was referred to SGPGIMS, a detailed clinical evaluation and imaging raised suspicion of an airway foreign body. The medical team immediately planned an emergency bronchoscopy to prevent further complications.

A multidisciplinary team comprising specialists from paediatric surgery, pulmonary medicine and anaesthesia successfully removed the foreign body from the child’s left bronchus under general anaesthesia. Doctors said the child showed significant improvement soon after the procedure, with relief from cough and respiratory distress.

Director PGI Radha Krishna Dhiman said that the parents and caregivers should remain vigilant while feeding or supervising young children and to seek immediate medical attention if a child develops sudden coughing, choking, noisy breathing or persistent respiratory symptoms after suspected aspiration.