Varanasi: In a rare surgery doctors at Sri Sundarlal Hospital in Banaras Hindu University (BHU) removed a 25 paise coin that was stuck in the trachea (windpipe) of a 40-year-old man for the last eight years. A team of doctors led by cardio-thoracic surgeon Prof Siddharth Lakhotia and Prof SK Mathur removed the coin from the trachea in a procedure that lasted for 20 minutes on Tuesday.
Dr Lakhotia said, “It is very unusual for objects to enter the trachea of adults due to the presence of a strong cough reflex in adults. It is common in children. A case where a foreign body has been lodged in the trachea for the past 8 years is very rarely reported, especially in adults.” “Such foreign bodies are life-threatening and patients may suffocate, develop pneumonia, and damage the lungs. Patients can also die due to difficulty breathing or other complications. The entire procedure took 20 minutes and the patient is now fine and will be discharged from the hospital within a day of the procedure,” he said.
Dr Amrita Rath of the Department of Anesthesiology, who played a key role in removing the coin, said, “Such procedures require a very high level of precision and even the slightest error can pose a threat to life. In this case, an advanced rigid bronchoscope was used to remove the coin that had been in the windpipe for 8 years.”
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Dr Ratnesh Kumar, a cardiothoracic surgeon in the team, said, “This facility of removing objects from the trachea of adults is available only in the Institute of Medical Sciences, BHU, among government hospitals in eastern Uttar Pradesh. Dr Kumar also said that in the case of adults, if a person sleeps with anything in their mouth or is in a semi-conscious state under the influence of alcohol and drugs, then the chances of foreign bodies entering the windpipe increase.
