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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

Surgery saves boy who gulped tiny LED bulb

Mumbai : In a bizarre development, a small boy from Kolhapur swallowed a tiny LED light bulb a few months ago that got stuck deep in his...

Surgery saves boy who gulped tiny LED bulb

Mumbai : In a bizarre development, a small boy from Kolhapur swallowed a tiny LED light bulb a few months ago that got stuck deep in his lung causing huge trauma and emotional stress for his family, officials said.   When the unusual case was referred to the Jaslok Hospital & Research Centre (JHRC), a team of medicos successfully extricated the foreign object lodged in the three-and-half-year-old boy’s chest.   Recounting the remarkable feat, a JHRC official said the child, Aarav Patil was reported to be suffering from severe breathing difficulties and incessant coughing for almost three months.   Doctors treating him at his home town initially mistook it for pneumonia and subjected him to multiple courses of antibiotics and other medicines, but there was improvement in the boy’s condition.   Subsequently, he was taken for advanced tests, examinations and a CT Scan which revealed the shocker – a metallic object was sitting inside the boy’s left bronchus, partially blocking the airway.   More tests identified the offending object – it was a LED bulb from a toy car – a development so rare that even seasoned doctors described it as a ‘one in a million case’.   Though doctors in Kolhapur attempted to retrieve the foreign body through flexible bronchoscopy - a minimally invasive procedure - the attempts proved to be unsuccessful.   As Aarav’s condition appeared to deteriorate, his desperate family rushed him to JHRC and he was referred to a team of specialist doctors.   After studying his case and examining Aarav, the medical team comprising thoracic surgeon Dr. Vimesh Rajput, ENT surgeon Dr. Divya Prabhat and Dr. Anurag Jain discovered that the bulb had not only blocked the bronchus but had also embedded itself in the surrounding tissues of the lung tissue, making its removal extremely challenging.   A rigid bronchoscopy conducted further confirmed the severity of the obstruction. Left with no other option, the doctors decided to opt for a mini thoracotomy — a delicate surgery involving a 4-centimeter incision in the chest.   “This was one of the rarest cases we’ve encountered. The bulb was lodged in such a way that conventional methods could not retrieve it. Through careful planning and teamwork, we managed to safely remove the object by a mini thoracotomy and restored Aarav’s lung function,” explained Dr. Rajput.   Emphasising how such cases are ignored, Dr. Prabhat pointed out that chronic cough or breathing issues are often dismissed as common pneumonia or even asthma.   “However, such persistent symptoms must always be investigated thoroughly, especially through early detection and imaging which can make all the difference to the patient,” she averred.   JHRC CMO Dr. Milind Khadke said, “The foreign body aspiration in kids is far more common that parents may realise but quick intervention is critical to prevent long-term medical complications.”

The Lads of Latur

Updated: Oct 22, 2024

Latur

In October 2019, actor Riteish Deshmukh posted on X, “We did it papa”. The jubilatory post was in recognition of the electoral victories of his two brothers, older brother Amit and their youngest sibling Dhiraj. With his win in 2019, Dhiraj became the fourth Deshmukh to enter the Maharashtra legislature. His father Vilasrao Deshmukh rose from being the sarpanch of an earlier obscure village of Babhalgaon to becoming a two-time chief minister of Maharashtra and a union minister. His uncle Diliprao followed his older brother into politics and served as a minister in the state. Vilasrao’s older son Amit is a two-time member of the Maharashtra legislative assembly and a former minister. Over the past four decades, the Deshmukh clan had wielded considerable clout in the state’s power circles with an almost iron-like grip over the politics of Latur.


Seen as a shrewd political craftsman, but, with a warm and pleasant demeanour, Vilasrao’s career has seen sharp highs and lows especially when he to step down from the chief minister’s position following a controversy and also faced corruption charges in the Adarsh building case. But his rise has also been meteoric. An alumnus of Pune’s ILS college, Vilasrao dabbled in the local politics of Babhalgaon and Latur before entering the Maharashtra state legislature in 1980 and becoming a minister, two years later. It is said that he tried to topple Sharad Pawar’s government in the state a few times but was unsuccessful. As a minister until 1995 and then as the chief minister in 1999, Vilasrao handled varied portfolios from industries, agriculture and cooperatives to the sensitive home department. While he wasn’t new to controversies, the biggest blow came in 2008 when he was stripped off the CM’s seat because of the public uproar following his visit to the terror-stricken sites along with filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma.


While the controversies continued, Vilasrao was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the Congress and was made a minister at the centre. Ill health plagued him even as he attended the glitzy weddings of his sons, Riteish and Dhiraj who married actress Genelia Deshmukh and filmmaker Deepshikha Bhagnani respectively. Over his career, Vilasrao also established educational institutes and a sugar factory. He passed away in August 2012 in Chennai after a liver failure.


His older son Amit who was, for long, viewed as his political heir, made his debut in the state legislature in 2014 while he was the district president of the Congress in Latur. The year also marked his younger brother Dhiraj’s debut in state politics from the Latur Rural constituency, re-establishing the Deshmukh clan’s goodwill in Latur.

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