- A five-year-old girl in northern China swallowed a 50-gram gold bar and was hospitalized
- The gold bar measured 4 cm and lodged in the girl's stomach, risking severe internal damage
- Initial clinics lacked facilities for emergency removal, so she was taken to Beijing Children's Hospital
A five-year-old girl has been hospitalised in northern China after she accidentally swallowed a 50-gram gold bar. The child was admitted to the Beijing Children's Hospital last Sunday (Aug 16) after her condition became critical. The heavy, dense gold bar risked scratching her stomach lining, threatening severe internal bleeding and organ perforation.
The small gold bar measured 4 cm in length and remained lodged in the stomach after the girl's consumption, as an X-ray revealed. The girl allegedly swallowed the gold bar while playing at home, according to a report in South China Morning Post
Prior to heading to the hospital, the family took her to several small clinics, but none of them had the facilities for emergency endoscopic removal of foreign objects. The hospital affiliated with Capital Medicine University detailed that the girl was brought in a critical condition.
Since the gold bar was relatively hard and dense with a smooth surface, it could easily become stuck in the digestive tract. If left unchecked, the bar could have scratched the stomach lining, leading to severe health complications.
Operation Successful
The doctors found that the gold bar was lodged in the girl's gastric cavity, a space that offered extremely narrow operating conditions. Despite this, the doctors performed an intraoperative endoscopy and managed to fish out the bar with a snare and carefully withdrew it from the cavity.
It took only a few minutes for the team of doctors to remove the gold bar, but it was a delicate operation. The girl has recovered as well and is showing all stable vital signs.
As the news of the operation went viral, a section of social media users questioned how the girl accessed the expensive gold bar, while others said the parents should have kept the object out of reach.
“How wealthy must the family be to allow a five-year-old easy access to a 50g gold bar?” said one user, while another added: "Responsible parents should always monitor their children's behaviour and keep dangerous items out of their reach.”
