Medical Must-See: AÂ penny for your throat
When a child swallows a coin, general wisdom is that it will pass through — but this is not always the case.
This Ethiopian girl lived with an ingested coin for four months before doctors removed it with rat-toothed thumb forceps.
The child, aged four, accidentally swallowed a one-birr Ethiopian coin, witnessed by her older brother.
Her parents decided not to seek medical attention, hoping the coin would pass through naturally, but finally did so when the child became symptomatic, four months after ingestion.
According to doctors writing in the International Journal of Surgery Case Reports, the girl was taken to hospital after developing a persistent cough, stridor, tachypnoea, nausea, vomiting and dysphagia a week beforehand.
