PEANUTS IN LUNGS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21597, 15 September 1933, Page 8

PEANUTS IN LUNGS

CHILDREN NEAR DEATH DIFFICULT OPERATIONS • / fFROM OUE OWN COBBESPONDENT] SYDNEY. Sept. 9 Doctors at Sydney Hospital are dealing with two amazing cases of children #ho swallowed peanuts and came close tp 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 y the child awaiting an opportune moment to remove it. A girl, aged 18 months, was hurried to the hospital about six weeks ago. She had been taken previously to a doctor near her home on the South Coast and he found that the lung was being starved for air. He jvas told that a few days earlier other "children had 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 a reflector at the other. What the electric eve sees is brilliantly reflected, and the doctor saw the lung to be in a serious condition. The surgeon, who could not remove the rut,, gave the baby a light application of chloroform to make her cough. At the 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 was performed, an incision being made in the throat to allow air into the lungs. The child is still in a serious condition, but is stated to be improving.

The second case was that of a boy. aged ttfo, 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 eases," a doctor said, "because it is almost impossible to locate the abscess 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."