5-Year-Old Swallows Bullet

After he told his parents that he had swallowed the bullet, he was brought to the Emergency Room at Schneider Children’s. Dr. Eran Mashiach, a senior physician in the ER, referred him for an x-ray of the abdomen, where the bullet was seen in the child’s stomach.

ER physicians are used to consulting frequently with the team in the Institute of Gastroenterology at Schneider Children’s, toxicologists and even the police sapper. As a rule, foreign bodies are removed through endoscopy in the operating room, but in this case, there was fear that contact with the metal could lead to a chemical reaction in the child’s body. It was therefore decided to wait until the bullet passed through the child’s body naturally, which it did, after a few days.

Dr. Mashiach stated that “Schneider Children’s is experienced in removing foreign bodies yet this was a rare case of a dangerous foreign object inside a little boy. To our relief, the incident ended well. I would like to emphasize that parents must move small objects out of the reach of infants and young children as they can swallow them and cause significant injury.”