Reuters reported on September 13 that a medical team in northeastern Peru saved the life of a 2-year-old boy who swallowed eight syringes while playing at his mother's workplace.
The boy swallowed the needles at the farm where his mother, Narly Olórtegui Pisco, worked in Mariscal Cáceres province, northern Peru.
The boy's name was not released, but he was identified as living with his family in the town of Taratopo, 622km from the capital Lima. Taratopo is known as a major agricultural region in the Latin American country.
The child was rushed to Hospital II-2 Tarapoto, where surgeon Efraín Salazar Tito discovered eight needles stuck throughout the child's abdomen.
"Two needles were in the right peritoneum, three were in the left, one in the abdominal wall and the remaining two were in a dangerous position between the bladder and the rectum," according to a statement from the San Martin regional government.
Local media reported that the needles were used to vaccinate animals on the farm where the boy’s mother worked. The boy is believed to have found the needles while playing before swallowing them.
Doctors successfully removed all the needles from the patient's abdomen after 2 hours of surgery. They also examined and patched up the small wounds on the small intestine. The child is now out of danger.
Young children often have the habit of swallowing objects. In a study published in April 2019, the American Academy of Pediatrics said that the rate of children swallowing foreign objects has doubled in the past 20 years (since 1995) to nearly 800,000 cases.
Children aged 1-3 years old swallowing foreign objects accounted for 62% of the total cases. Coins, toys and jewelry are among the foreign objects that young children frequently put in their mouths to swallow.
Minh Hoa (reported by Thanh Nien, Vietnam+)
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