AIIMS Bhubaneswar Paediatrics Team Removes Needle From 9-Yr-Old Boy’s Lungs

Bhubaneswar: AIIMS Bhubaneswar’s department of Paediatrics saved the life of a nine-year-old boy by performing a ground-breaking bronchoscopic intervention to remove a stitching needle which was lodged in his lungs.

It’s the first instance of such a sharp foreign body being removed without resorting to open surgery in any paediatrics centre in Odisha, claimed AIIMS Bhubaneswar.

The boy, hailing from West Bengal, was brought to AIIMS Bhubaneswar after aspirating a 4 centimetre long stitching needle into the left lower lobe bronchus lateral segment of the lungs.

The team of paediatricians, including Dr Rashmi Ranjan Das, Dr Krishna M Gulla, Dr Ketan and Dr Ramakrishna, performed bronchoscopic intervention to extract the needle without the young patient suffering any complication.

The patient, admitted for four days post-procedure, is in stable condition and on path to recovery.

The entire process, which took about an hour, spared the young patient from a major life-threatening surgery (thoracotomy). Such a surgery could have jeopardised the boy’s health as it could have required the removal of a portion of the lungs, emphasised Dr Das.

The patient, admitted for four days post-procedure, is now in stable condition and on the path to recovery.

Congratulating the team of doctors for performing the life-saving procedure, Executive Director Dr Ashutosh Biswas encouraged continued excellence in such interventions.

Dr Gulla said that AIIMS Bhubaneswar boasts of a dedicated Paediatric Pulmonology and ICU team which performs bronchoscopic interventions from neonatal age to 15 years, providing comprehensive care under one roof.

This innovative procedure, available at AIIMS Bhubaneswar and a few centres across India, utilises less invasive flexible bronchoscopy for the removal of sharp airway foreign bodies.