Boy Inhales Blowgun Dart After Creating Homemade Model
A visit to the emergency room became a game of questions, as it was discovered a boy had inhaled a blowgun dart and it was lodged in his throat.
According to Yahoo the boy was coughing for three hours before his arrival at the emergency room. Upon admittance, he told the doctors he had just been playing with his siblings.
Once doctors took x-rays of the 15-year-olds throat, they immediately saw what the problem was.
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Blowguns work by putting the narrow tubing into your mouth exhaling hard causing the dart to be forced out with breath. In this case, the boy inhaled deeply, causing the dart to be shot backwards in sucked into his throat.
Yahoo reports that instructions for making homemade dart guns are all over the Internet, and most do not warn about the dangers they can truly pose.
"When a child inhales deeply, their vocal chords open fully, which makes it easier for objects to enter their airway," said Dr. Kris Jatana, a specialist at Children's Hospital Columbus, Ohio to Yahoo. "It's really a setup for foreign body aspiration."
The doctors were able to perform a non-surgical procedure where they used another tube to remove the dart. The case report said there were no complications.
According the Children's Hospital, they received a few other cases of the same kind over the next couple of months.
"Symptoms of aspiration include difficulty breathing, coughing, wheezing and spitting up or coughing blood," a report in a Pediatrics journal said.
