Falling from bed to the ground, 1 year old baby suffered a ruptured trachea

The NVTP boy (12 months old, residing in Hau Giang) was sitting and playing on the bed when he fell on the floor, lying on his back. After examination, the doctor concluded that the baby had a ruptured trachea, pneumothorax, and broken ribs.

A 12-month-old boy from Hau Giang was playing on the bed when he fell on the floor, lying on his back. After examination, the doctor concluded that the baby had a ruptured trachea, pneumothorax, and broken ribs.

Taking the medical history, the family said that after the fall, baby P. cried, was awake, did not vomit, and did not have convulsions. The next day, the family discovered that the baby had a swollen neck and chest, went to the doctor and was admitted to the local hospital. Here, the child was noted to be lethargic, had purple lips, had difficulty breathing, SPO2 85%, was intubated, ventilated, and had a CT scan of the head, chest, and abdomen showing subcutaneous emphysema in the abdomen, hips, back, chest, and neck on both sides, collapsed upper lobes of the lungs on both sides, and the middle lobe of the lungs. The doctor concluded that the child was being monitored for tracheal rupture, pneumothorax, and rib fractures. The child was transferred to the City Children's Hospital (HCMC).

CT scan and chest X-ray showed the child had pneumothorax, subcutaneous emphysema, and rib fractures.

On March 7, specialist doctor 2 Nguyen Minh Tien (Deputy Director of the City Children's Hospital) said that baby P. was consulted by respiratory, ENT, surgical resuscitation, anesthesia and resuscitation specialists to diagnose tracheal rupture and rib fracture, and agreed to perform open chest surgery to reconstruct the trachea, combined with bronchoscopy during surgery. Doctors determined that this is a rare case of tracheal rupture in children.

During surgery, the patient was placed on the left side at 90 degrees, the team cut and cleaned the perforation, sutured the perforation, inserted an endotracheal tube through the perforation site, irrigated the right pleural cavity, placed a pleural drain, and bandaged the surgical wound...

The child was then transferred to the Department of Surgical Intensive Care for treatment with respiratory support, antibiotics, intravenous fluids, sedatives, and acid-base electrolyte adjustment.

After nearly 2 weeks of treatment, the child's condition improved, the mediastinal and subcutaneous emphysema gradually disappeared, the ventilator was removed, and the pleural drainage tube was removed. The child was alert and breathing fresh air.

Through this case, Dr. Tien reminded parents to always keep an eye on children under 3 years old, because at this age, children often explore the world around them such as crawling, touching strange objects, peeling off strange objects and putting them in their mouths, etc., leading to unfortunate accidents such as burns, electric shock, poisoning due to drinking or eating chemicals or medicine by mistake, falling injuries, etc.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nga-tu-giuong-xuong-dat-be-1-tuoi-bi-vo-khi-quan-185250307135607388.htm