Toddler rushed to hospital after choking on 50 fils coin

Doctors in a Sharjah hospital operated to remove the coin lodged in her stomach

Aya Isra had to have a 50 fils coin removed from her stomach after she swallowed it. Courtesy: Shabnaz Isra

A three-year-old girl had to have a 50 fils coin removed from her stomach after she swallowed it and almost accidentally choked herself in the process.

Ayat Isra was rushed to hospital on May 19 after she popped the coin in her mouth and began to gag.

Her mother, Shabnaz Aziz, said it all happened very quickly.

“I saw her putting something in her mouth and, when I realised it was a coin, I yelled to tell her to stop but she had already swallowed it,” she said.

Panicked, Ms Aziz called her husband, who was not home, and he suggested she try different techniques to get the coin out of their daughter's throat.

“I tried everything but I could not get to the coin."

Aya managed to swallow the coil and Ms Aziz took her to Al Zahra Hospital in Sharjah, where the girl was placed under observation overnight.

“The coin was first not clearly visible so doctors had to wait for it to settle down," said Ms Aziz.

"They then said the coin was stuck above the small intestine and so would be removed by a gastroscopy.”

Aya was sedated before paediatric surgeon, Dr Wissam Al Tamr, and gastroenterologist, Dr Prithvi Priyadarshini, snaked a gastroscope or flexible tube with a small light and video camera attached into her stomach.

Using the images projected on a screen, the doctors located the coin and activated the tube, which can suck our air or fluid or remove tissues samples or small objects.

The procedure took just five minutes and Aya was discharged from hospital a few hours later.

Ms Aziz will keep a close eye on her daughter, who stuck small beads up her nose last year.

“She has been mischievous before. We could not remove the small beads she pushed into her nose. When we took her to hospital, she cried a lot, coughed and so the beads fell out."