AIIMS doctors remove whistle from trachea of 4-year-old

Doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi removed a whistle which had got stuck in the airways of a 4-year-old child after he accidentally aspirated it, through endoscopy. "Shahin, a native of Nuh distrist in Haryana, was brought to the Mother and Child Block of the hospital Sunday morning," Dr Prabudh Goel, Additional Professor, Department of Paediatric Surgery said.

He said the child's father had bought him a pair of slippers which had an inbuilt whistle. The whistle got dislodged and Shahin put it inside his mouth and it landed in his airways, Goel added. "The child was coughing when he was brought to the emergency ward. He was also in respiratory distress because the airways were compromised... the child was also making a whistling sound while breathing," the doctor said.

The left main bronchas was okay, the left lung was being aerated and that is the reason the child survived. Additionally, there was movement of air into and out of the right lung through the whistle. The parents told us that it took them about one-and-half hours to reach the hospital.