Bulb extracted from girl's lung

KOLKATA: Doctors at SSKM Hospital on Thursday operated on a child who had swallowed a tiny electric bulb last week. The bulb was stuck in the left lung of Pratima Alemajar (4) and she was having severe breathing trouble when she was brought to the hospital.

Pratima was first taken to Sonarpur Rural Hospital after she swallowed the 2 mm X 1 mm bulb at her Sonarpur home. There, doctors gave her medicines to make the bulb pass out through her stool. When that did not work, her family brought her to a private hospital in Kolkata. But the bulb could not be extracted there, either.

The child had developed a severe breathing problem and cough by then. "The bulb had got stuck in her left lung. Her condition was deteriorating fast and only surgery could save her. We had to make sure that the bulb did not break. We managed to pull it out by its filament," said Arunava Sengupta, who led the team of surgeons. Pratima has been kept under observation.