PEANUTS IN LUNGS

Hokitika Guardian, 20 September 1933, Page 8

PEANUTS IN LUNGS

CHILDREN NEARLY LOSE LIVES 1 TWO DIFFICULT OPERATIONS. SYDNEY, Sep. 16. Doctors at Sydney Hospital arc dealing with two amazing cases of children who swallowed peanuts and came close fto death. An urgent operation had to be performed on one child, and the nut is still in the lung of the other, while doctors hover over the child awaiting an opportune moment to remove it. A girl, aged 18 months, was hurried to the hospital about six weeks ago. She bad been taken previously to ' doctor near her home on the South Coast and lie found that the lung was being starved for air. He was told thata few days earlier other children had been eating peanuts, but it was not known whether the baby had placed one in her mouth. At Sydney Hospital the Child was placed in the care of a skilful doctor'. An X-ray did not reveal the presence of a nut and a bronchoscope was used. . This is a cylinder-like instrument, with a tiny electric bulb at- one end and ai reflector at the other. Wlia't the electric eye sees is Tu'lliantly reflected, and the doctor saw the lung to be in a serious condition. The surgeon, who could u°t remove the nut, gave the baby a light application of chloroform to make her cough. At tire second violent fit of coughing the child dislodged the peanut. Complications set in and inflammation sealed her throat, making desperate measures' necessary. A tracheotomy operation’ an incision beTng made’in the throat to allow air into th ; e lungs. The child is still in a serious condition, but is stated to be improving.

The second case was that of a boy, aged two and the nut is believed to have been in the lung about two months, all efforts to remove it having failed. His breathing became restricted, one lung being affected. Pneumonia supervened, but later other complications began to develop. “It is a very difficult task to perform an operation in such cases,” a doctor said, “because it is almost impossible to locate the abcess which forms, We know it Is in the chest, but cannot tell just where. These two cases show the grave danger of allowing children to handle peanuts. There is something in peanuts which seriously irritates the'chest when they become caught in the lungs. I do not know what that something is, but it is definite.”