A boy, saved from death, wants to become a doctor.
April 17 - 23, 2003 MOLODYI BUKOVINEC’, Originally published in Ukrainian
A pen cap got stuck inside the lungs of an eight-year-old Bogdan.. Resuscitation doctors of Sokiryany hospital identified the crisis situation right away – due to the lack of oxygen the boy’s heart could stop at any moment. Immediately a special brigade from the regional centre was called upon.
Boy was allowed to talk slowly and quietly:
“I was holding the pen cap in my mouth, when the boys from the back row unexpectedly pushed me in the neck” – a second-grader explained – “I don’t know how it got so far inside me…”
Doctor-endoscopist from the regional hospital, Anatoliy Shevchenko, along with his brigade came from Chernivtsi all the way to Sokiryany in less than two hours.
“The poor boy was waiting for so long, that he lost his fear. Bravely, he got into the wheelchair, which took him to the operating room. Right before he lost his conscience he told us that he wants to become a doctor”.
X-ray didn’t show much of the plastic pen cap, boy’s chest was wheezing and his breathing was getting heavier and heavier.
Thankfully, the specialist from Chernivtsi came with the most up-to-date bronchoscope. With its help an object was quickly identified and pulled out from the trachea, where it blocked the whole left bronchus and partially blocked the right one. The situation was really threatening, but finally there was a happy end.
Bogdan Pykhtin was transferred to the ward. He was still sleeping. Doctor left on his bed-side table a red pen cap from a ball point pen as a memory and as a warning about the future safety precautions.
As we learned that day, strange objects are being pulled out from children’s lungs quite often. Just in the last year alone, Anatoliy Shevchenko saved 21 children:
“One twelve-year-old boy came to the hospital on his own”, Anatoliy Shevchenko told us. “And, by the way, he also swallowed a pen cap, but he was afraid to go home. After a successful operation he asked us not to tell his parents about what had happened”.
According to Anatoliy, most of the time when children up to three years old arrive at his office, they suffer from alien objects in their lungs. They are usually swallowing small seeds or pieces of nuts. To avoid this, parents should try to feed their children only at the family’s table and watch carefully to make sure that children are sitting still and don’t engage in playing games at the table.
Once, there was a four-month-old baby with a pneumonia that wouldn’t respond to treatments. Eventually doctor found a fraction of a peanut inside the baby’s lung, which evidently caused the lung fever.
Anatoliy Shevchenko also told us about the worst case during his practice. A two year old baby got a fish spine inside his breathing paths, where it was crushed into little pieces:
“I was ‘hunting’ for every tiny piece of fish bone until all of them were out. I am still getting the chills just thinking about that. But we saved him…”
Interview was conducted by Lyudmila Cheredarik “MB”
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