How Soroti child survived death after swallowing geometry compass
Oct 03, 2023
Echodu explained that one of his friends gave him to play with a part of a geometry compass on Wednesday afternoon after he returned from school at lunchtime.
Parents carrying Echodu who swallowed a pair of campass. (Photos by Emmanuel Alomu)
Emmanuel Alomu
Journalist @New Vision
_________________ Echodu handling a pair of Campass
A six-year-old boy has cheated death after swallowing a geometry compass in Aregerego cell, Madera ward in Soroti city.
It was on Friday evening that Godwin Echodu returned from the latrine crying that he had failed to defecate.
When he started having diarrhoea with blood, his father, Geoffrey Amoret, forced him to explain what had happened.
Echodu explained that one of his friends gave him to play with a part of a geometry compass on Wednesday afternoon after he returned from school at lunchtime.
“When I put the compass in my mouth, I mistakenly swallowed it but I was afraid to give this information to my parents,” the third born in the family of five children said.
The piece, according to the medics, was about six centimetres.
The removal
Beatrice Akello, the mother, said their son managed to stay with the piece inside the stomach from 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, September 27, 2023, to about 1:00 p.m. on Saturday (September 30, 2023) when the doctors from Joint Clinic Soroti removed it.
“We rushed the boy to Joint Clinic-Soroti, an X-ray was done and the medics discovered the compass from where it was removed on Saturday afternoon. We thank God that our boy is alive,” Akello said.
Dr Emmanuel Opio and senior consultant surgeon Dr Joseph Epodoi removed the metal through endoscopic surgery.
This type of surgery is performed using a scope, a flexible tube with a camera, and light at the tip. This allows a surgeon to see inside the colon and perform procedures without making major incisions, allowing for easier recovery time and less pain and discomfort.
New Vision Online learned about this matter when the parents brought the boy to be prayed for by Reverand Stephen Omoko at Otucopi Pentecostal Assemblies of God on Sunday.
Epodoi on Monday said this was the first case he has seen in the last 30 years since he started working as a doctor.
According to him, they get about three cases monthly of children swallowing metals, especially coins and bottle tops but not a compass.
“What helped the child is that the blunt end was the leading head as it navigated through the intestines until it remained in the rectum and that is where we were able to remove it,” he said.
He added: "The risk about this metal was that the pointed end would have perforated (pierced) an internal body organ such as the stomach or intestine causing the stool to leak and this is life-threatening. This would have happened if the pointed end was leading. If the pointed end was leading, then the only option was to operate his stomach to remove the metal".
No Comment