AGRA: A 14-year-old boy from Hathras in UP died hours after doctors at Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital — in a complex and gruelling surgery that lasted almost five hours — removed about 65 objects, including batteries, chains, razor blade fragments and screws, from the child’s stomach.
“Aditya Sharma was brought to Safdarjung Hospital where doctors found all those objects in his stomach. He died due to an intestinal infection,” said an official at the hospital on Saturday, adding, “He must have swallowed these objects in the past”. His father, Sanchet Sharma, a medical representative at a pharma firm in Hathras, said Aditya started complaining of shortness of breath and discomfort on Oct 13, prompting a visit to a hospital in Agra. His parents, in the next two weeks, took him to medical facilities in four cities — Jaipur, Aligarh, Noida and Delhi — with the hope of a proper diagnosis and cure. “But Aditya died on the night of Oct 28. All of this happened within a month… He never had any physical or mental ailments in the past,” said Sharma, who lives in Ratnagarbha colony.
Aditya was Sharma’s only son. After their visit to the Agra hospital, the Class 9 student was referred to a hospital in Jaipur where following scans and tests he came back to UP on Oct 19. Two days later, Aditya’s breathing difficulties resurfaced and his parents rushed him to a hospital in Aligarh. There, a CT scan found a “nasal blockage”, which the doctors successfully removed, Sharma said.
“However, Aditya started having abdominal pain and on Oct 26 after an extensive ultrasound test in Aligarh, it was found that there were 19 objects stuck inside his stomach. He was immediately referred to a private hospital in Noida, and we took him there the same day. In Noida, doctors found 42 objects in the stomach and called for urgent medical attention,” he added. Aditya was subsequently moved to Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital, where a scan identified a “total of 65 objects”, and the boy’s “heart beat raced up to 280 per minute”, the family said.