Illustrative image (Source: thanhnien.vn)HCM City (VNA) – A
five-year-old boy from HCM City’s District 10 died recently from choking on
jelly cubes, sold in Vietnam in small plastic containers with a peel-off top.
Dr Dinh Tan Phuong, head of HCM City
Paediatrics Hospital 1’s Emergency Aid Ward, said the boy, after taking off the
top, sucked the jelly cube too strongly.
The cube, made with mixed gelatin
and other ingredients, became stuck in the boy’s airway, Phuong said.
After the boy turned blue, his
parents provided first aid but it was ineffective. The boy was then taken to
the hospital, but died later that day.
Phuong said that can
easily get stuck and block a person’s airway. This can lead to death or
disability.
Two years ago, the hospital’s ward
admitted a child who had choked on a jelly cube. The doctors saved the child,
but he developed cerebral palsy because he had been deprived of oxygen for a
long time.
Other hospitals in the country have
also received children who have choked on jelly cubes or other items.
However, there are no official
statistics on accidents involving jelly cubes or other items.
Phuong said that small jelly beans
in milk tea can also pose a .
If victims are not given first aid
within four minutes, they can suffer a brain injury, he said.
To unblock the stuck item, an adult
should stand behind the child and lean and support the chest with one hand to
force out the item blocking the airway.
Phuong said that parents should be
careful in giving food to children. For example, they should take out seeds of
longan and litchi and then cut the fruit into small pieces before giving them
to children.
According to the charity
organisation Child Accident Prevention Trust in the UK, choking is one of the
main causes of accidental death in children under five years old in the UK.
The US National Safety Council’s
Injury Facts 2017 showed that choking was the fourth leading cause of death
from unintentional injuries, including in children and people aged 74 and over
in the US.-VNA
Source: VietnamPlus
