Images in Clinical Medicine
Asphyxia Due to an Inhaled Foreign Body
N Engl J Med 2005; 352:2110May 19, 2005
- Article
A three-year-old boy was playing with a small plastic ball while riding in the backseat of a motor vehicle driven by his father. The father heard a gasp, saw that the child was unconscious, and pulled to the side of the road. He suspected the child had aspirated the toy ball and tried to dislodge it by patting the child on the back. Emergency personnel intubated the child at the scene. No foreign body was visualized during the intubation. The child was dead on arrival at the emergency center. During the postmortem examination, a radiograph of the head and neck showed a spherical foreign body located in the oropharynx (arrowheads) and an endotracheal tube passing beneath the foreign body and positioned in the trachea (arrows). The oropharynx contained a toy soccer ball 2.5 cm in diameter (inset).
Neda Zarrin-Khameh, M.D., M.P.H.
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, TX 79430Robert E. Lyon, D.O.
Forensic Science Center, Phoenix, AZ 85007- Citing Articles (2)
Citing Articles
1
Joseph C. Seaman, James L. Knepler, Karen Bauer, Mitchell Rashkin. (2010) The Mean Green Popsicle. Journal of Bronchology & Interventional Pulmonology 17:4, 348-350
CrossRef2
Morio Iino, Chris O’Donnell. (2010) Postmortem Computed Tomography Findings of Upper Airway Obstruction by Food. Journal of Forensic Sciences 55:5, 1251-1258
CrossRef
