Pen Cap Removed

A 12½-year-old boy arrived in respiratory distress to Schneider Children’s ER after he had, in his words, “played with” a pen and inhaled the cap. Hewas treated by Dr. Meir Mei-Zahav, senior physician in the Pulmonology Institute who found that the cap was blocking the main bronchus in his right lung. The boy was rushed to the operating room, where the cap was extracted.

The emergency alerted a team comprising the ENT specialist, surgical nurse and anesthetists. After locating the cap, Dr. David Ulanovsky, senior ENT specialist at Schneider Children’s, removed the foreign body from his lung in a delicate endoscopic procedure. Due to the rapid response, the child was saved from fatal strangling, and was hospitalized for observation following surgery.

Dr. Mei-Zahav noted that “the incidence of inhaling foreign bodies is more common among infants and babies, but it can also happen in older children. Parents must teach their children about such dangers and ensure as far as possible that their child does not play with small items or loose elements that could be inhaled and block the airway passages as in this case. If a child inhales a foreign body, medical assistance must be sought immediately or the child taken to the nearest ER.”