D dailymail.com For video of Dr. Nasir, go to dailymail.com.
Dr. Amana Nasir has removed everything from plastic Army men to Mom's diamond ring from curious children's esophagi.
"Toys look so cute on the X-rays. It looks like a little deer stuck in your chest," Nasir said holding up a small, plastic reindeer toy. "Or a tiny shoe in your chest. Or a little Scottie dog in your chest."
Nasir, assistant professor of pediatrics at West Virginia University's Charleston division, specializes in pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology and pediatric nutrition at Charleston Area Medical Center's Women and Children's Hospital.
She treats about 50 children a year who have ingested foreign bodies such as coins, pins, screws, button batteries, thumbtacks and toy parts.
This is the prime season for foreign body cases, added Nasir, who says the incidents occur more often during holiday months from October to March.
The cases are seen most commonly among children ages 6 months to 7 years old, with about the same numbers of boys and girls.
In cases of children under the age of 2, often an older child has placed the foreign body in the mouth of the toddler.
"Under 1 is the worst age because we don't have pipes small enough to go in and get the object," Nasir said.
Nasir uses endoscopy, a minimally invasive diagnostic procedure, to locate swallowed objects in the digestive or gastrointestinal tract, composed of the esophagus, stomach and small and large intestines.
The medical procedure allows the doctor to remove objects by feeding a "net" or "rat-tooth forceps" through the tube into the sedated child's esophagus.
Replica Louis Vuitton BagsThe most common foreign body swallowed in the developed world is money, Nasir said. In developing countries, where fish is a dietary staple, the most common foreign body is fish bones.
"We get a lot of expensive pennies out of children," she said. "We put everything in a cup and give it back to the family as a souvenir."
Joshua Strickland, 6, has the penny to show for his mistake.
In late November, the Alum Creek resident was complaining to his mother, Misty, of a stomachache.
"He was just holding his stomach and crying," Misty said. "I didn't even know he had swallowed anything. He is one of those kids who doesn't like to tell you anything."
They rushed Joshua to Women and Children's emergency room.
"Right before they were going to do X-rays, I looked at my husband and said, 'The only time he has hurt like this is when he was little and swallowed a penny.' Just when I said that, my son's eyes got huge," Misty said.
As a 3-year-old, Joshua swallowed a penny that passed through his body on its own.
Tissot ReplicaThis time it turns out the curious little boy had, in fact, swallowed his second Abraham Lincoln.
X-rays revealed the penny's location in the lower part of the esophagus leading into the stomach.
"He was pretty scared," Misty said.
Joshua was sedated for the 45-minute procedure.
"It could have ended up a lot worse," Misty said. "Putting my kid to sleep makes me nervous. Dr. Nasir
Other articles:
http://watches2010.otemo-yan.net/e264507.html
http://www.qdxiqu.com/Echoes-of-the-ECHO.html