Live fish lodges in toddler’s throat during aquarium cleaning, removed after surgery

INDORE: What began as a routine aquarium cleaning session turned into a medical emergency for a family in Indore after a fish accidentally jumped into a toddler’s throat.Doctors successfully removed the fish from the one-year-old boy through surgery, officials said on Thursday.The incident took place on April 3 when the child’s elder siblings were cleaning the home aquarium and playing with ornamental fish collected in a net. During the activity, one of the fish suddenly leapt out and landed in the toddler’s mouth as he was laughing.Alarmed, the family rushed the child to Government Maharaja Yashwantrao Hospital (MYH) for urgent medical attention, according to news agency PTI.Head of the ENT department at MYH, Dr Yamini Gupta, “The nearly three-inch fish was alive and flapping vigorously as it was stuck in his throat. It caused injuries, and blood mixed with saliva was coming out. The child had anxiety, restlessness and breathing difficulty.”Given the severity of the situation, doctors decided to carry out emergency surgery. A six-member medical team conducted a half-hour “complex procedure” to remove the fish, which had died by the time it was extracted.The child was kept under observation for a few days following the operation and was later discharged in stable condition. He is now healthy, Gupta confirmed.“This is the first case in central India where a fish stuck in a one-year-old’s throat has been removed through surgery,” Gupta said.She also cautioned that foreign objects lodged in young children’s throats can be life-threatening due to their narrow airways.