- By Imran Zafar
- Sat, 04 Nov 2023 05:07 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
A seven-year-old boy who had a sewing machine needle embedded in his left lung was saved by a team of doctors from AIIMS Delhi, who used a magnet to pull out the needle. The boy had coughed up blood and was in a critical condition when he was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday.
The hospital said the procedure was complex and required meticulous planning and brainstorming among the surgical team and their technical officer. The doctors who carried out the procedure were Dr Vishesh Jain and Dr Devendra Kumar Yadav, both Additional Professors in the Department of Paediatric Surgery.
The doctors performed an endoscopic procedure to locate the needle, which was 4 cm long and deeply lodged in the lung. They used a magnet, which they procured from Chandni Chowk market, to attach to a specialised instrument with one jaw. They inserted the instrument into the windpipe and guided it to the needle’s tip, which was barely visible.
"The magnet, 4 mm in width and 1.5 mm in thickness, was the perfect tool for the job," Dr Jain said, who reached out to an acquaintance, who facilitated the procurement of the magnet from the bustling market.
The needle responded to the magnetic force and came out smoothly, avoiding the need for a more invasive surgery that would have involved opening the chest and lungs. The doctors said the magnet was the perfect tool for the job, as traditional methods would have been ineffective, news agency PTI reported.
"The magnet-tipped instrument was carefully inserted. It seemed almost magical as the needle responded to the magnetic force, smoothly emerging from its concealed location. It was successfully extracted," Dr Jain said.
"Had this not worked, we would have needed to open the chest and lungs and extract the needle with the traditional method which would have been more difficult and invasive," he said.
(With inputs from PTI)