Toddler had tiny bulb stuck in his lung for a week, doctors perform delicate rescue in Faridabad hospital

What seemed to be a stubborn cough in a two-year-old child turned into a critical airway emergency requiring a highly coordinated medical intervention.


The child was taken to the hospital’s Emergency Department on May 11 with persistent cough, noisy breathing, difficulty breathing, and intermittent fever. Doctors said the symptoms had lasted for nearly a week. Initially the family had seen a local paediatrician as the cough would not settle.


In the course of the assessment the parents remembered an occasion when a small bulb-like part of a television remote control may have been choked on. The pediatrician had his doubts that the child had aspirated a foreign body, that is, an object had gone into the airway instead of the food pipe and he immediately referred the child to Amrita Hospital for urgent management.


Investigations showed that the object had gone deep into the right lower bronchus, a small air passage inside the lung. The doctors said the case was particularly risky because the foreign body had metallic wire elements and a fragile glass component. The prolonged stay in the airway had also provoked granulation tissue formation which made it more difficult to be removed.


Several specialty teams quickly collaborated to organize an urgent bronchoscopy in the operating room, aware of the risk of injury, bleeding, and total obstruction of the airway.

The procedure involved a multidisciplinary team of experts of Amrita Hospital, Faridabad from Pediatric Pulmonology, Adult Pulmonology, Pediatric Anesthesia and ENT services. Key specialists involved were Dr Maninder Dhaliwal, Dr Sourabh Pahuja and Dr Ridhima Bhatia.


Advanced bronchoscopy techniques were used by doctors to gently remove the foreign body without further trauma to the airway. The child had instant relief when the obstruction was cleared and recovered sufficiently to be discharged within a day.


Doctors said such cases can become life-threatening very quickly if symptoms are ignored or delayed. Frequent coughing, loud breathing or sudden difficulty breathing after a choking episode should always be taken as warning signs, particularly in children.


“This case was a reminder that in pediatric airway emergencies, timing and teamwork can be the difference between crisis and recovery,” said the treating team.