What to do when you've swallowed something you shouldn't have
A human being is brought to the infirmary, experiencing severe pain in the chest and back.
This could be a sign of a major heart, lung or blood vessel emergency, thinks Dr Michael Fung, consultant with the Astute And Emergency Care Department at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH), a member of the National Healthcare Group.
Equally information technology turned out, the man is somewhen found to have a chicken os stuck in his oesophagus.
Information technology might be surprising to know that the classic signs of choking – like coughing – aren't ever present when nosotros've swallowed something nosotros shouldn't have.
Apart from the usual suspects such as fish, chicken and frog leg bones, fruit seeds, and meat or vegetable boluses, local doctors take also pulled some stranger objects, such as dentures and broken spoon shards, from the oesophagus – and sometimes, further down the digestive organisation.
"Pins, needles and paperclips," also said Dr Ker Liang, consultant with National University Infirmary's (NUH) Department Of Otolaryngology (ENT) – Head & Neck Surgery, "are commonly held between the patient'south lip while working, and inadvertently swallowed past error".
READ: Standing more, sitting less at work to lose weight? Don't become your hopes upwards
"Nosotros've had a patient with fever come in," said Dr Fung, and that fever was caused by a deep abscess in the patient's rectum, which was somewhen establish to exist the result of an impacted fish bone.
It had passed through his intestine and lodged itself in the rectum where it resulted in a painful drove of pus.
WHO SWALLOWS?
An average of 10 patients who've swallowed something dubious come up through the NUH Emergency Medicine Department on a daily basis, while KTPH'southward emergency room saw xv choking cases concluding year out of an boilerplate of 138,000 patients yearly.
READ: Is eating cafeteria meats really that bad for y'all?
Babies and toddlers are the biggest swallowers of things, said Dr Karthik Balakrishnan, assistant professor of otolaryngology at the Mayo Clinic.
"They explore the world in many ways, including putting things in their mouths. They don't know what should go in and what shouldn't and so things tin can accidentally be swallowed."
Example in bespeak: SpongeBob SquarePants, spotted not in a pineapple nether the bounding main merely on the Ten-ray of a 16-calendar month-old male child.
The toddler from Saudi Arabia had been brought to the infirmary for swallowing something.
What doctors didn't expect was a pendant of the grinning cartoon character that had belonged to his sis, said Dr Ghofran Ageely, a radiology resident at King Abdulaziz Academy Hospital in Jeddah.
Then, there are the unusual items that people have intentionally put down their throats.
Have the case of the drunk xviii-yr-one-time student from Bournemouth University in England, for instance. He didn't want a night of partying to terminate, and then he sent his room key downward the hatch to prevent his friends from taking him back to his dorm, co-ordinate to Mental Floss.
Lucky for him, doctors told him that the keys would "reappear" without surgery.
Individuals with certain psychiatric bug or dementia may also feel compelled to swallow not-food items.
"They but seem to have a need to swallow things," said Dr Troy Madsen, associate professor at the University Of Utah School Of Medicine.
"For them, swallowing things feels adept."
READ: How filthy is your workspace since you went on leave?
In fact, in a 2010 report published in Clinical Gastroenterology And Hepatology, the medical intervention that is needed to remove swallowed foreign objects largely involved patients with psychiatric disorders.
WHEN TO SEE A DOCTOR
Choking occurs when "the foreign object passes downwards the dorsum of the throat into the airway instead of the oesophagus," said Dr Fung.
"If information technology is large enough to block the airway, the person will be unable to breathe or speak."
When this happens, no oxygen can enter the lungs.
The brain is the first organ to be affected and begins to die within 4 to half dozen minutes. Irreversible brain death can occur in as petty as ten minutes.
Urgent cases besides include those with signs such as vomiting blood, breast pain, abdominal pain or distension, and blood in the stools, said Dr Fung.
"Medical attention should definitely be sought if the swallowed object was sharp and pointy every bit it could tear a pigsty in the digestive tract," he said.
Co-ordinate to Dr Ker, most patients are "well later the choking episode but accept throat pain" from the choking and cough.
Withal, all patients should see a medico immediately, she brash.
"Most items take about 24 to 72 hours to travel from the mouth to the end of our gastrointestinal tract," said Dr Ker.
"Larger items may take a longer time to travel down. The larger the particular, the higher the risk of getting stuck, which may lead to dangerous intestinal obstruction.
"Surgery is often necessary to remove these big items earlier they enter the intestines."
WHEN TO DO THE HEIMLICH OR OTHER TECHNIQUES
Many people would retrieve "Heimlich manoeuvre" when they see someone choking.
But the technique tin can cause "serious abdominal injuries", said Dr Fung.
"There was also a report of a shoulder injury sustained by the well-intentioned person performing the manoeuvre."
"Information technology is important to be properly trained in a basic life support class before attempting the manoeuvre.
Additionally, it is important to explain one's intentions to the choking person and obtain his or her agreement before proceeding," said Dr Fung.
The movement involves continuing behind the choking person, wrapping your arms around him, and performing a fist thrust into his upper abdomen.
"The impacted object does not 'fly out' as information technology comes free. Unremarkably, information technology dislodges and ends upwardly in the back of the person'due south oral crenel," he said.
If the choking is mild and occurs in an adult, another way to help is to encourage him to coughing, said Dr Ker.
This is when the person is commonly able to yet speak, cry, cough or breathe.
Just when information technology is a more severe case of choking, and coughing doesn't help, Dr Ker suggested carrying out five dorsum blows:
- Stand behind the person, slightly to one side.
- Lean him forward and support his chest with one hand.
- Apply the heel of your paw (business firm, bony area between the palm of the hand and the wrist) to deliver five blows between the shoulder blades.
If the blows don't work, Dr Ker said to proceed with v intestinal thrusts:
- Stand up backside the person.
- Place your arms around his waist and bend him forward.
- Clamp a fist and place it correct higher up his belly button.
- Put the other paw on top of your fist and pull sharply inwards and up.
If the thrusts however don't brand a difference, call 995 for an ambulance and inform the operator that y'all take a choking situation.
Go on with the dorsum blows and intestinal thrusts until assist arrives, said Dr Ker.
"If the person loses consciousness and is non breathing, you should begin cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) with chest compressions."
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/wellness/what-to-do-when-you-have-swallowed-fish-chicken-bones-choking-234786
0 Response to "What to do when you've swallowed something you shouldn't have"
Post a Comment