Pen cap, coin found in oesophagus of month-old baby

In a shock to his parents and doctors, a collection of articles, including an eraser bar and a pen cap, were found in the oesophagus of a 25-day-old boy in Alappuzha district.
A one rupee coin was also recovered from the trachea of the baby after a two-hour surgery by a team of doctors at the government medical college here on Friday.
The baby was born earlier this month to a local couple.
He is now in the intesive care with pneumonia but stated to be recovering.
According to hospital sources, the child was admitted to the hospital recently with complaints of high fever and reluctance in taking milk. He was also suffering from breathing difficulties.

Though the doctors could not find anything suspicious in the preliminary examination, the presence of the coin and other articles came to the notice after x-ray and scanning were carried out, hospital sources said.
A team of doctors, led by Dr M K Ajayakumar, head of paediatric surgery department, removed the articles through video endoscopy, the source said.
However, the doctors as well as the parents were clueless on how the articles got inside his body.