Child Hospitalized After Eating Almond
Despite several hospital visits, it took three months for doctors to discover that the child had an encrusted almond in one of his lungs.
David, a two-year-old child, is in serious health condition. He cannot move or speak because of an accident he had 5 months ago, after eating an almond.
José Domingo Cruz and Amparo Alba, the parents of the child, share their experience with the whole world to warn other parents. Their statements were published in the newspaper El Mundo.
A child eats an almond
It all started five months ago. In the Cruz Alba family home, we celebrate Our Lady of the Good Remedy, the principal patroness of the Trinitarian Order. That day, plenty of appetizers were ready to be tasted on the table.
Little David grabbed an almond and put it in his mouth. He then sat on the couch to watch the cartoons while the adults busied themselves in the kitchen.
He coughed several times but no one gave it much importance, as the child did not seem to be choking.
The start of the nightmare
A week later, David has a fever: his temperature rises to 40 ° C.
His parents immediately took him to the pediatrician at Elda City Hospital. The pediatrician indicates that this fever is linked to the growth of teeth.
The prescribed medication did not lower the fever. A day later, the parents took their little one to the emergency room again, because they suspected the onset of pneumonia. Two days later, the child was sent home because the doctors had found nothing abnormal.
Yet the child’s health continued to deteriorate and parents had less and less response from doctors. The parents then remember the almond episode and they start to think there is a connection.
Second hospital stay
After learning of this fact, doctors send the child to Alicante hospital on January 11. The child is kept under observation for 4 days before undergoing a bronchoscopy.
The doctors introduced a flexible tube into the child’s larynx: a piece of almond encrusted for three months was extracted. But this is where the situation gets complicated: the inserted tube released all the pus accumulated in the lung, which caused cardiac arrest.
Doctors took 28 minutes to resuscitate the child, then put him into a coma to stabilize him.
Twelve days after this complication, David woke up without his infected lung, but with severe neural damage from the cardiac arrest. He can open his eyes but he cannot see. His body is still, he cannot eat or speak.
The struggle of parents against doctors
For the parents of the child, the state of health of their son is due to medical negligence. Doctors, they said, should have done all the necessary tests sooner.
“He had the rotten organ and the almond was plugging in front of the infection. If they had detected his presence from the start, none of this would have happened, ”assures José Domingo, indignant.
Pediatricians say that under no circumstances should dried fruit be given to children under the age of five, as there is a high risk of suffocation. 80% of cases of strangulation in children have a link with this type of food.
Amparo and José Domingo do not believe that it is a simple accident and demand justice. In the meantime, many people have decided to support them. In two weeks, they collected 10,000 euros for the treatments.
