Young children
face
daily household hazards at home, such as swallowing an object.
But the case of
Luke McMillan,
with a more than toxic battery, left everyone in shock.
The 5-year-old boy from Arizona,
USA
, was very
prone to
ear infections
, something that by regularity already alarmed his family to see him touch his ears over and over again.
That's when his mother Erica took him to the doctor to get checked out, and he was diagnosed with an ear infection.
They prescribed antibiotics.
But things were not what they seemed.
Little Luke McMillan, 5 years old, lives in Arizona, USA.
Chest x-ray and surprise
At first, the boy seemed to improve, but he had
difficulties swallowing solid food and kept throwing it back
,
reports
The Mirror.
Luke's parents decided to change his diet from solids to liquids to make sure he could get nourishment.
"We just assumed it was a side effect, because he's done it before," mused the mother.
But after the boy finished his course of antibiotics, she was still unable to swallow solid food.
The doctor was surprised to discover the object on the chest X-ray.
Erica took the boy back to the doctor, who speculated a reflux problem.
But her maternal instinct told her that there was something beyond her, so to get out of the doubt she went in search of another pediatrician.
This new doctor
requested an X-ray
of Luke's chest, something that at first sounds like a daily step to rule out conditions.
"I saw him give a strange look," revealed Erica, who was asked by the doctors if Luke had swallowed a coin or if he was wearing a necklace with a button, to which she answered in the negative.
Surgery and appearance of a lithium battery
Luke was rushed to a hospital, where he had to undergo
emergency surgery to remove the object.
The button cell battery was wrapped in electrical tape.
They believe that saved her life because it prevented corrosion and saved her life.
"The doctors told me that there was no way it was a battery because they start to corrode in just a couple of hours," the woman continued her story, still shocked.
This was the button-type battery found in the little boy's esophagus.
After an hour in the operating room, one of the health professionals confirmed what he supposed: they had
found a lithium battery stuck inside
Luke's esophagus.
how he saved his life
The surprise was that
the battery was wrapped in electrical tape
, and according to what the doctors speculate, this could be
the reason that saved the child's life.
The battery had been lodged in Luke's throat for
five weeks
and had
damaged esophageal tissue
, which the surgeons will attempt to repair.
The impressive frontal chest X-ray.
The goal is to enlarge the child's throat, although they say it is a process that requires time and many annoying surgeries.
Beyond the "lucky accident", Erica says that Luke recovers and has already been able to eat a banana for the first time in six months.
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