I was en route to a call for a child choking. We are typically canceled on these calls before we arrive on scene as the parents either relieve the obstruction, or they realize that kid wasn’t really choking. Not this time. We made it all the way across town and arrived on scene to see a firefighter waving us into the house.
My partner puts the ambulance in park and gives our “on scene” traffic as I walk around to the back to get the gurney out. The firefighter walks up and says “Sean, the kids really choking…..not sure on what but we can’t get it out”. We get our equipment and head inside, doing our best to stay as calm as we can.
Sure enough, an 8 month old girl is on the floor with firefighters trying desperately to relieve the obstruction. They inform me that they are unable to ventilate with a BMV and back blows and chest thrusts are not working. I take a second to assess the child and realize that the kid now has no pulse. I quickly grab my laryngoscope and magill forceps and insert the blade to try and spot the foreign body that has deprived this poor child from oxygen. Seeing nothing but emesis, I grab the portable battery-powered and suction the airway. I go back in a see a blue object in the child trachea. I manage to grab the object on the first attempt and remove it. I place an ET tube and begin ventilating the child.
It was a balloon. A blue balloon that the child was biting before it popped, being sucked into the child’s airway as she probably gasped from being frightened.
The child is placed on our gurney, secured, and we are off to the nearest hospital. A quick look for IV access appears hopeless so I place an IO. After 1 round of EPI and Atropine, the child’s pulses return. No spontaneous movement, no spontaneous respirations…..just a pulse.
We get to the ER and the child is placed on a ventilator. Before clearing the hospital, I hear that the kid is now starting to breathe on her own. The ER staff was able to get a stable blood pressure and subsequently flew the child out to the nearest children’s hospital. I called that hospital every day for a week in hopes to hear good news. Unfortunately she died after a week of ICU.
Balloons are an infants worst enemy. They are possibly the worst thing a kid could possibly swallow. BLS methods of relieving balloons that are stuck the airway are next to useless. Unfortunately the parents of this child learned this the hard way. This is quite possibly the most mentally draining call that I have ever run.
If you have an infant or a toddler, be very careful when letting them have balloons. Please keep an eye on them, or just keep balloons away from them. Remember, we can’t all carry laryngoscopes around with us at all times.
