Don't let a moment of carelessness turn into a tragedy for young children.

VHO - A single fall while running and holding a skewer of grilled meat nearly cost a 2.5-year-old girl her eyesight and put her at risk of traumatic brain injury due to a foreign object piercing her face. From this rare accident to many recent cases of children being stabbed with knives, bitten by dogs, etc., doctors warn that many seemingly harmless objects and situations in daily life can leave serious consequences, even lifelong trauma, for young children if adults are negligent in supervising and caring for them.

X-ray images and a large knife stabbed into the victim's head.

Accidents caused by seemingly harmless objects.

After school, a 2.5-year-old girl was taken by her parents to eat grilled skewers. While running around holding a skewer of meat, she unfortunately tripped and fell, causing the sharp skewer to pierce directly into her face. The accident happened in just a few seconds, but it caused panic in the family as the bamboo skewer was deeply embedded near the child's left eye. The child was in pain, crying continuously, and was rushed from a local hospital to a higher-level hospital, then to Viet Duc Friendship Hospital that same night.

Upon admission to the hospital, the foreign object was still embedded from the base of the nose, angled upwards towards the left eye socket. What worried the doctors most was that they could not yet determine exactly how deep the sharp end of the bamboo stick had penetrated.

Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Hong Ha, Head of the Department of Maxillofacial Surgery - Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery, said that this was an exceptionally difficult emergency situation because the child was too young, panicked, and unable to cooperate with the examination. Doctors could only determine that a sharp foreign object had penetrated from the base of the nose into the eye socket, but it was unclear whether it had damaged the eyeball, penetrated the skull, or affected important blood vessels or nerves.

According to doctors, attempting to remove the foreign object on their own could cause massive bleeding, nerve damage, or severe cranial complications. The biggest difficulty lay in the fact that the foreign object was a bamboo stick, which was almost radiopaque on a standard X-ray, making it very difficult to determine the path of the sharp end. A member of the medical team said that at one point, doctors considered returning to the restaurant to find a similar skewer to estimate the length of the part that had penetrated the child's body. However, the bamboo stick, which had been cut off for easier transport, was lost, making it nearly impossible to determine the depth of the foreign object.

That very night, Viet Duc Friendship Hospital activated a multidisciplinary consultation process involving specialists in Maxillofacial Surgery - Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery, Neurosurgery, Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, Anesthesia and Resuscitation, and Diagnostic Imaging. Doctors directly went to the multi-slice CT scanner, created 3D images, and meticulously examined even the thinnest slices to trace the path of the foreign object.

After nearly an hour of tense surgery, the doctors successfully removed the foreign object from the child. The child is now alert, playful, and fever-free; the left eye is still slightly swollen but vision is preserved. However, eye movement remains limited, and the child needs continued close monitoring for cranial nerve issues, infection risk, and visual function in the coming days.

Accidents in the home can leave lifelong consequences.

Besides the case of the little girl whose face was pierced by a skewer, the Vietnam-Germany Friendship Hospital has recently been receiving many child patients with serious household accidents. Among them is an 11-year-old child admitted with a rare traumatic brain injury caused by a large knife embedded in the left side of the head while the two siblings were playing at home. Another case involves a 22-month-old child bitten by a dog, sustaining multiple complex wounds to the face, admitted in a state of panic, pain, and heavy bleeding. Doctors had to perform comprehensive surgery to treat the injuries and control the risk of complications for these children.

Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Hong Ha warns that accidents involving young children can happen at any time if adults are negligent in supervising them. Familiar items such as skewers, toothpicks, chopsticks, pens, or candy sticks can all become dangerous foreign objects when children are eating and running around. Just one fall can cause eye injuries, head injuries, or leave severe lifelong disabilities.

Doctors advise parents not to let children eat while running and playing; they should remove food from skewers before giving it to children and limit children's handling of sharp objects. If a child is stabbed by a sharp object, do not attempt to remove it yourself; instead, quickly take the child to a specialized medical facility for proper treatment.

In particular, accidents caused by dog, cat, or other animal bites not only cause physical injury but can also leave lasting psychological trauma for young children. Painful and frightening experiences at this age can easily lead to fear, phobias, sleep disorders, or a loss of a sense of security. Therefore, parents need to pay attention to educating children about animal safety, and should not let them play alone with pets, even familiar family pets. Pets should also be fully vaccinated, muzzled, or kept safely confined when children are present and when taken to public places.

Never take your eyes off children.

Doctors warn that many serious accidents in children stem from very familiar objects such as skewers, chopsticks, toothpicks, pens, or candy sticks... Just one fall while eating and running around can cause eye injuries, skull damage, or leave severe lifelong consequences.

Accidents involving dog and cat bites also pose many risks to young children, ranging from physical injuries to long-lasting psychological trauma. Therefore, parents need to limit children's exposure to sharp objects, prevent them from eating and running around at the same time, and always supervise them when they interact with pets. A moment of carelessness on the part of adults can sometimes lead to extremely tragic consequences.

Source: https://baovanhoa.vn/doi-song/dung-de-phut-bat-can-thanh-bi-kich-voi-tre-nho-232077.html