7-cm nail removed from 2-year-old

MADURAI: In a rare surgery, a seven-centimetre-long, rusted iron nail was removed from a two-year-old boy’s right lung, at the Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) recently.Dr N Bala Nayagam, Professor, Department of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, said that a team of doctors — Dr Kumaravel, Dr Vijayananth, Dr Muthukumar and Dr Thirunavukkarasu — led by him, conducted the surgery on April 10. In the operation, which took about an hour, the iron nail was removed from the boy’s right lung.The doctor said that Mohammed Rafi, son of Raja Mohaideen of Yagappa Nagar, swallowed the iron nail 45 days ago, while he was playing at a construction site near his home. An X-ray of his chest taken at the GRH revealed the presence of the iron nail in the right lung, very close to his heart, the doctor said, adding that at first, they tried removing the nail by using an endoscope.However, when they failed the doctors decided to go for a Right Thoracotomy Surgery. “The boy’s right side thoracic cavity was opened. The iron nail was lodged at the right lower lobe bronchus, rear to the heart. It was carefully squeezed to the main bronchus and was removed,” he said.