Overview
- Doctors at Kolkata Medical College removed a magnet lodged in six-year-old Arafat Ali’s right bronchus using a specially made magnet on Thursday.
- Multiple bronchoscopy attempts with forceps failed over two days and the team performed a tracheostomy to secure the airway while they prepared for possible chest surgery.
- Associate Professor Diptanshu Mukhopadhyay sourced a small, stronger magnet from Maniktala lathe worker Prabhakar Karar that could be affixed to bronchoscopy forceps.
- Surgeons used the custom magnet through the tracheostomy opening to attract and extract the lodged object, after which normal airflow returned and the child was moved to the ICU.
- The case highlights the danger posed by small magnets in children and shows how local cross-sector improvisation can avert a thoracotomy when conventional tools and immediate PICU capacity are constrained.