Girl swallows SIM card accidentally

THRISSUR: The sweeping victory of LDF has proved dear for a 16-year-old Plus-II girl student from Thrissur as the student who was having a discussion on election results along with her parents watching the results on TV on Thursday accidentally swallowed a SIM card that was being removed from her mobile phone using her teeth.

In the rare case, doctors at Amala Medical College Hospital in Thrissur finally succeeded in removing the SIM card which remained in the lungs of the student after a couple of days. Speaking to ‘Express’, Dr Arjun G Menon said the student identified as Aswathi, a native of Mundoor, was admitted to the hospital soon after the incident by the parents. She was fed by fruits and heavy food soon after the incident by her parents, thinking that the SIM would go out along with the stool from the stomach. However, she developed breathing troubles and respiratory disorders by evening and her parents rushed her to the hospital.

In the CT scan and X-ray inspection, the object was found struck in the lungs and soon the doctors including ENT specialists took out the SIM card by inserting bronchoscope into the airways, a process called bronchoscopy. “It was a life-threatening situation for the student as the foreign body which got struck in the lungs was capable of disrupting the breathing,” said Arjun. The timely intervention and early diagnosing has in fact saved her life, he added. She was discharged from the hospital on Monday.  Hardly a month ago, a 29-year-old woman psychiatrist died at a private food court in Puzhakkal in Thrissur after the food she ate choked her windpipe.

The deceased Dr Lakshmi Mohan of Paravur was having vegetable snacks along with her husband in the night at the food court and she suddenly developed respiratory problems and fell unconscious after food got stuck in her windpipe. Though she was rushed to a private hospital in Thrissur, she was declared dead on arrival.