Doctors in Haifa save girl after she inhales baby tooth and collapses

Many young children know the ritual surrounding the dropping out of baby teeth and saving them for the “tooth fairy.” In the case of Gili Bezalel, a nine-year-old from Misgav in the Galilee, the role of the tooth fairy was replaced by the goddess of fortune.

A few days ago, while she was at school, Gili felt one of her baby teeth fall out, and she accidentally swallowed it. The frightened girl informed the teacher, who contacted her parents and explained to them what had happened.

Since the girl also complained of pain during deep breathing, the parents decided to take her to a clinic near their home for an examination, where an imaging and technical examination was performed to make sure that the swallowed tooth was not stuck in the esophagus (food tube). After tests were performed, her complaints about the pain did not go away, so her parents were advised to go to the pediatric emergency department at Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa.

“We arrived at Rambam in the early evening,” said Gili’s mother, Noa. “Gili felt fine, and there was no particular complaint beyond what she had said about her tooth earlier. But when we reached the emergency room, her condition suddenly changed, and she had difficulty breathing.”

The tooth that was inhaled was located in her left lung and apparently had moved higher, with its new position blocking the girl’s airway. In a short time, her condition worsened, and she collapsed, suffering from shortness of breath.

The children’s triage team who were on duty and included senior doctors from the field of emergency medicine, specialists and nursing staff, transferred the girl in a panic to the shock room, where she was ventilated to stabilize her condition.

“At a certain point, the girl’s life was in danger,” said Dr. Idit Pasternak, assistant to the director of the children’s emergency department at Rambam’s Ruth Rappaport Children’s Hospital, who treated the girl. “As soon as she stabilized, we rushed her to the operating room, and in a gentle procedure using a guided camera, the team pulled the tooth from her lung. A short time later, Gili was weaned off the respirator and transferred to the pediatric intensive-care unit for further observation. The next morning, she was already sent home, healthy and feeling well.”

The dramatic event that could have ended differently.

“It was great luck to be in the right place and at the right time,” Noa said. “We didn’t think for a moment that it could come to this. When she started having difficulty breathing, and I saw the team running to her, I understood exactly what was happening. It was horrible. I’m just full of gratitude for everything.”

When Gili returned to school, she told her classmates about what had happened.

“A case of suffocation may be life-threatening,” Pasternak said. “If a child suffocates, and he or she is suspected or known that a foreign object is in the mouth, don’t take any chances. You must go get checked in a hospital emergency room for a doctor to listen to the lungs, take an image if necessary and make a decision on continuing treatment. Fortunately, this story ended peacefully.”