Terrible Twos

A referring doctor from Bolgatanga Hospital telephoned asking if he could send a two year old child in respiratory distress from a coin stuck in his esophagus. The boy arrived in Tamale alive after a three hour trip. He had had a cough for one month, was repeatedly treated at a local clinic without improvement and finally at the Bolgatanga hospital, an x-ray was taken showing the coin. The parents had no knowledge that the child had ingested it. With some difficulty, the coin was removed from the boy’s esophagus with equipment donated by Robert J. Fieldman, MD and partners and the Karl Storz Company. In the recovery room, the child had severe upper airway obstruction for two hours before returning to normal. The respiratory difficulty may have been caused by irritation from the halothane anesthetic gas which was used. Subsequently, he did well and was discharged. No time to get a photo as the cattle truck accident victims began arriving.
In the midst of the chaos resulting from the cattle truck accident, a little girl presented with a twelve inch wire sticking out her mouth. No one seemed to know how the toddler came to have such an object stuck inside of her but Mr. Mamonie, the senior nurse anesthetist believes this was an example of witchcraft as only the father brought the child in. The mother was not present. Under sedation, the long wire was removed from the toddler’s soft palate and anterior tonsillar pillar and the she was sent home. Because I was overwhelmed caring for the numerous accident victims, a history was not obtained. I just removed the wire and returned to the critical patients.