A 14-month-old girl was saved at the Santa Maria Nuova hospital in Reggio Emilia after inhaling sunflower seeds which risked suffocating her.
The little girl, as the Reggio Emilia health company announces, was taken by the family to the emergency room on September 1st with persistent fever and bouts of vomiting . The parents explained to doctors that she had coughed while eating sunflower seeds during a stay abroad and that, despite antibiotics and aerosols, her fever did not subside. The little girl was subjected to radiological examinations and hospitalized to proceed with a bronchoscopy. The examination of the airways, performed in the operating room with the child intubated, revealed the presence of a sunflower seed in the left main bronchus and three seeds in the right main bronchus . The latter was almost completely occluded and showed an inflammatory reaction linked to the long persistence of the foreign body.
The seeds - which measured up to 10 millimeters in length - were removed one by one . The delicate unblocking maneuver was performed by Dr. Roberto Piro, head of Pneumology, together with the director of the same department Nicola Facciolongo.
The girl then remained for observation in the pediatric ward and was discharged yesterday .
"We are happy that everything has gone well - explains Dr. Piro - What happened pushes us once again to appeal to parents, grandparents and relatives not to let their guard down and not to offer small children dried fruit or others . foods that, due to their shape, consistency or size, may be at risk of inhalation . If the food is not suitable, the danger is always around the corner ".
(Unioneonline / vl)
