CHENNAI: Doctors at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) saved the life of a 54-year-old from Andhra Pradesh by removing a metal bolt from his airway passage (bronchus). Speaking to press on Monday doctors said, Jojappa, a resident of Kadappa district in Andhra Pradesh was referred to the hospital on June 26. A plumber by profession, while fixing a pump line, he was holding a 2 cm metal bolt in his mouth but accidently swallowed it. He was rushed to a private hospital. “The bolt went through the windpipe and sat in the bronchus.
The hole in the centre of the bolt helped him breath. If the bolt didn’t have a hole, he would have choked to death immediately. The patient also experienced breathlessness and had persistent cough,” said Dr R Muthukumar, director, Institute of Otorhinolaryngology, RGGGH. The patient went to two private hospitals in Kadappa but they couldn’t locate the foreign body. “He was then rushed here. We took a scan and X-ray and found the bolt in the bronchus.
We immediately planned for the surgery,” he said. “But, it was tricky because we had to pass anaesthesia tube also from the same airway passage where the bolt was lodged. So, we gave anaesthesia through intravenous line and tried to remove it through an endoscopy without incision. But, it slipped thrice. The third time, it slipped into the voice box, which is a narrow passage,” the doctor explained adding that they decided to do a tracheostomy.
“We made a small incision in the throat and through endoscopy removed the bolt and closed the opening. The patient can now speak normally and is ready to be discharged. The entire procedure took one hour,” he added. —