In one of a kind incident, a 69-year-old retired army officer underwent a surgery after he ate a piece of mutton seekh kebab in one go which blocked his windpipe. The officer was having a problem in breathing while he was brought into emergency as the passage of air to the lungs was completely blocked.
When the doctors failed in removing the six-inch kebab from windpipe (trachea) by adopting the conventional method, they then took the help of anabdominal laparoscopic grasper a tool used when performing gall bladder removal surgeries. Major Rajinder (retired) had nearly choked to death on the kebab that he was eating at his home in Gurgaon.
According to a report published in the Times of India, Dr Tatavarthy said we have come across such cases in the past when a person has gulped seekh kebab which leads to choking in trachea. In such cases, patients usually do not survive it. “Past cases, published in the UK, revealed that such kind of choking has had calamitous outcome with patients getting no time to reach hospital”.
Dr Tatavarthy added that as the patient was brought to the hospital on time and innovative thinking between anaesthetists and ENT specialists saved his life.
“If these actions fail to clear the material, it may become lodged in and obstruct the trachea, causing choking. Even if you don’t choke, the food that makes its way down the trachea into your lungs can lead to a very serious case of pneumonia,” the doctor said.
