Doctor extracts ring from baby’s stomach
It’s the kind of story that usually shows up on U.S. TV programmes like “Ripley’s Believe it or not”. Well tonight we bring you the homegrown version of a very “Candid Camera”. News 5’s Jacqueline Woods has the details.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
One-year-old Isaac Herrera was at a neighbours’ house when he accidentally swallowed a large metal ring.
Jacqueline Woods
“How this happen?”
Irene Herrera, Mother
“He was playing with the thing they said and he put it in his mouth and he started to choke with it. And then they pushed their finger in the mouth to take it out, but the finger pushed it down into the stomach. They were telling me that it was a plastic thing, but then I tell my husband that I no feel right about it so I brought him to the hospital to see if they can x-ray him and see what it is.”
The x-ray showed that the metal became stuck in the little boys’ stomach. Because of the size of the child’s digestive system, young Isaac was unable to pass the ring and it remained in his body for several days.
Dr. Irvin Gabourel, Endoscopist
“As you can see, the ring is almost as big as the stomach itself and it wouldn’t go pass it because the stomach narrows further down, so this is why the ring is stuck there and it was there for five days.”
Dr. Irvin Gabourel, a Belizean gastroenterologist and endoscopist at the Universal Health Services Hospital says it was the first time he had ever seen this particular type of obstruction.
Dr. Irvin Gabourel
“I have removed pieces of meat that were stuck in a patients’ esophagus. I had removed a big piece of orange that was also been stuck in another patients’ esophagus. So it’s not a common thing but we do get a case like every two months we would get somebody with something stuck in their digestive system.”
If left untreated, the young patient could have developed complications like peritonitis, a serious infection in which the boy’s body would have become poisoned with its own fluids. Two weeks ago, Isaac underwent an emergency operation at U.H.S. where Dr. Gabourel used an endoscope to locate and remove the brass ring. The procedure should have lasted just a few minutes, but was complicated by an additional object found by the tiny camera.
Dr. Irvin Gabourel
“The interesting thing about this case is that this baby had eaten a pepitos a day or two before, and one of the pepito seed was stuck in the ring. So for me to be able to grasp the ring, I had to remove the pepitos from the ring and then take out the brass ring first, then the pepitos seed.”
Presently Dr. Gabourel is the only Belizean doctor qualified to perform endoscopic surgery, although a number of others have been receiving training. Jacqueline Woods reporting for News 5.
In related news, Universal Health Services has announced the commencement of haemodialysis treatment. This service, formerly unavailable in Belize, is being offered to those patients referred by their doctors.
