6-month-old boy chokes to death on fish

Thane: A six-month-old boy died in the Ambernath area on Thursday by choking on a dead fish he accidentally swallowed while playing with it

Thane: A six-month-old boy died in the Ambernath area on Thursday by choking on a dead fish he accidentally swallowed while playing with it. The fish was given to him by children from his neighbourhood.

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The deceased infant, identified as Shahbaj Ansari, was declared dead before admission to Central Hospital and it emerged after post-mortem that a 1.5-inch fish was stuck in his windpipe causing the death.

The incident happened in the Ulach chawl of Ambernath area, Shahbaj was playing outside his house with other children and was placed on a mat by his mother. The area is close to fish vendors and a few children gave him a dead fish in his hand to play with, which he swallowed.

When his mother picked him up, he was unconscious.

Sarfaraj Ansari, 30, father of the boy said, “We couldn’t understand what was happening to our baby. The incident happened around 6.30pm on Thursday, I took him to a nearby clinic but doctors didn’t realise what was the cause. They asked us to take him to Central Hospital. We took him there, and the doctors told us he was dead but we didn’t know the reason until the post-mortem results came. He was my first child. I have no idea who gave him the fish.”

A senior doctor of Central Hospital Thane, Rajesh Mhaske said, “The baby was brought dead to the hospital, and therefore, we could not do anything. During the post-mortem, we found around 1.5-inch fish, which was stuck in his windpipe.”

An officer from Ambernath police station said, “No one knows when he swallowed the fish, he was playing with other children. We have registered an accidental death report in the matter.”