While attending the class, a 7-year-old Vietnamese boy accidentally swallowed the pen cap of a ballpoint pen into his airway, causing brain damage.

After accidentally swallowing the pen cap into his airway, the child showed symptoms of coughing, difficulty breathing and chest pain. The teacher immediately took the child to the school’s medical room for first aid, then transferred him to the local medical center. On the way, the child stopped breathing and had to undergo cardiopulmonary resuscitation while on the way to the provincial hospital. Here, the child continued to receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation. However, due to brain damage due to lack of oxygen, the child had many continuous seizures, so the doctors quickly transferred the child to the National Children’s Hospital.

Doctor Nguyen Tan Hung – Deputy Head of the Department of Emergency and Anti-Poison (National Children’s Hospital) said:
“The child was admitted to the hospital in a very critical condition. He was given a balloon through the endotracheal tube, and is being continuously maintained with cardiac support drugs to ensure heart rate and blood pressure, deep coma, and continuous convulsions”.

The child was actively treated by doctors with measures such as mechanical ventilation, circulatory volume replacement, vasomotor maintenance, anti-cerebral edema treatment, and sedation at the emergency and intensive care units. Along with that, the child underwent emergency endoscopy at the bedside to remove the foreign body from the airway.

“The foreign body removed was a black ballpoint pen tip, about 0.5 x 0.8 cm in size, covering 70% of the right main bronchus. The child’s airway mucosa on both sides was edematous, with a lot of mucus in the bronchi”, shared Master, Doctor Vu Tung Lam – Department of Respiratory Examination and Exploration – Respiratory Center (National Children’s Hospital).

Despite the doctors’ efforts to treat the patient, due to the prolonged cardiac and respiratory arrest and irreversible brain damage, the patient di:ed after 4 days of treatment.