The barbecue brush punctured her daughter’s esophagus
An Australian woman is warning other parents about a barbecue cleaning tool after her nine-year-old daughter almost died after eating bacon and spring rolls. Kristen Saunders from Newcastle shared on social media that her nine-year-old daughter was served the sandwich at a venue in July. In addition to the food, she also swallowed a small wire bristle from a barbecue brush.
The barbecue brush punctured her daughter’s esophagus and entered the carotid artery in her neck. ABC news.
Ms Saunders told ABC News: “She was chewing but then she felt like she was choking.” She added: “I think like most parents we think, ‘You’ll be fine, have some water, it will settle down’.”
The family thought a visit to the doctor would solve the problem. The visit revealed that she had a high fever. The girl suffered from a sore throat and had difficulty eating solid food. Her condition improved and she even took part in the school athletics carnival.
But more symptoms started to appear.
“There was one particular day I was at her house and suddenly she was a bit confused answering questions,” Ms Saunders told the media.
“I thought, ‘Wait a minute, there’s something very problematic here’ and called the GP – her [said to] go to the hospital immediately.”
The girl stumbled, was disoriented and could not recognize her family. “They identified that there were some abscesses in the brain,” Saunders said.
“They did a CT at the last minute and found there was a small piece of wire, kind of near her neck.”
She was flown to Westmead Children’s Hospital in Sydney.
“The next day we realized it was quite serious: there was a large infection in one of her arteries,” she said.
“They had to replace it and there was a risk of all these different things, so that was pretty terrible.”
The surgery was successful and she made a phenomenal recovery. “She’s had a phenomenal recovery, considering what it could have looked like and how it could have turned out, and she’s doing really well now,” Saunders said.
‘She is off antibiotics, she is going back to school and will start exercising again soon.
“It could have been a lot worse.”
