A simple meal has turned into a rare medical case for 34-year-old Ruby Shaikh from Kurla after a chicken bone from her biryani got stuck in her throat. This led to a rare and complicated surgery. The eight-hour-long procedure surprised doctors when the bone moved in an unexpected way.
The total bill of the treatment cost them INR 8 lakh. But donations later helped reduce the amount by half.
On February 3, Ruby was having biryani when she swallowed a sharp 3.2 cm chicken bone. The bone got stuck near her cervical spine. She was taken to Criticare Asia Hospital, where an X-ray confirmed the presence of a foreign object.
Ruby initially declined a CT scan and was admitted to the hospital. Two days later, she returned with an infection, fever, and high blood pressure.
Later, doctors scheduled surgery for February 8. But when they began the procedure, they found that the bone had moved upwards instead of further down. A CT scan showed that it had reached the nasopharynx, the upper part of the throat. This was an unusual occurrence in medical practice.
The bone had caused perforations in her oesophagus near the carotid artery, a critical blood vessel. This led to an open surgery, which lasted eight hours instead of the expected two. The bone was successfully removed.
During her recovery, Ruby was fed through a tube for 21 days. She is now back home. After the ordeal, she has decided never to eat biryani again. She has told her husband that she will not cook or eat it in the future.
As per reports, the bone’s movement could be caused by the manipulation of the oesophagus during the operation or the effect of anaesthesia. Other doctors were also puzzled. They pointed out that food passing the cricopharyngeal sphincter does not usually return upwards. As per sources, coughing after anaesthesia and tissue necrosis might have caused the bone to shift.
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