Peru doctors save toddler who swallowed eight medical needles

LIMA – Doctors in north-eastern Peru saved the life of a two-year-old boy who had swallowed eight injection needles while playing.

“It was once we were in the operating room, and we opened up his abdomen that we found those metal pieces, (and realised) they were really needles,” Dr Efrain Salazar said.

Local media reported that the needles were used to vaccinate farm animals where the boy’s mother works.

The boy, whose name was not revealed, lives in the agricultural area of Taratopo, some 622km from capital Lima.

“Maybe he swallowed them when he was there playing,” the boy’s mother said.

The boy’s life was not at risk following surgery, local media added. REUTERS