Doctors Remove AA Battery From 4-Year-Old's Stomach 14 Hours After Accidental Ingestion

The doctors at a hospital in India have saved the life of a 4-year-old child, who accidentally swallowed an AA battery while playing with it.

According to reports, the battery got stuck inside the child's stomach. The child, who was identified only as Arvind from the southern state of Tamil Nadu, was rushed to a nearby hospital by his parents. Considering the level of complications after seeing the X-ray, he was directed to Rela Hospital, The New Indian Express reported.

At the Rela Hospital, a team of gastroenterologists found the battery in the child's stomach. The doctors, headed by senior gastroenterologist Dr. R Ravi, then performed a procedure to save the child.

The battery was successfully removed using the endoscopy method of inserting a tube fixed with Roth Net through the boy’s mouth. The doctors said Monday the battery was removed within 14 hours of ingestion. However, it wasn't clear when the operation took place.

Dr. Ravi said while there have been cases of children accidentally swallowing buttons, coins and button batteries, this instance of a boy swallowing a AA size battery was rare.

“Large objects and sharp objects are difficult to remove as they can damage the food pipe while being removed with endoscopy,” he said, according to The Hindu.

Doctors also said the procedure was challenging as the battery had to be aligned vertically or else it would have caused injury to the child’s food pipe.

“Even for an adult, the size of the battery is too large. We wonder how the child swallowed it. The bigger the foreign body that is ingested, the higher the complication to remove. So, in this situation we did an endoscopy using Roth Net and took a considerable amount of time to retrieve the battery without causing slightest damage to his internal organs,” Dr Ravi added.

Doctors said the child's life would have been at risk if he had not mentioned the incident to his parents. If the battery had stayed inside the child, it could have been eroded by the stomach acid, which could have led to complications.

After the procedure was completed, the child was kept under observation and later released from hospital the same day.