Asphyxia Due to an Inhaled Foreign Body

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     A three-year-old boy was playing with a small plastic ball while riding in the backseat of a motor vehicle driven by his father. The father heard a gasp, saw that the child was unconscious, and pulled to the side of the road. He suspected the child had aspirated the toy ball and tried to dislodge it by patting the child on the back. Emergency personnel intubated the child at the scene. No foreign body was visualized during the intubation. The child was dead on arrival at the emergency center. During the postmortem examination, a radiograph of the head and neck showed a spherical foreign body located in the oropharynx (arrowheads) and an endotracheal tube passing beneath the foreign body and positioned in the trachea (arrows). The oropharynx contained a toy soccer ball 2.5 cm in diameter (inset).

    Neda Zarrin-Khameh, M.D., M.P.H.

    Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center

    Lubbock, TX 79430

    Robert E. Lyon, D.O.

    Forensic Science Center

    Phoenix, AZ 85007

    http://www.100md.com/html/DirDu/2007/01/01/32/51/75.htm