Biting a chilli proves fatal for 2-year-old girl

Biting into a chilli pod is painful enough, but it can have far more serious consequences than a flaming tongue and watery eyes.

A two-year-old girl, who accidentally took a bite of the hot fruit, died of respiratory failure despite medical intervention. The AIIMS autopsy said death was caused by gastric fluids getting into the respiratory tract.

The rare incident was reported a few months ago and has been published in Medico-Legal Journal to educate the medical community about the risk of consuming substances with extreme taste.

The report said the girl vomited several times, resulting in fluids getting into the wind pipe. Doctors said it is possible that gastric fluids or vomit aspirated into the windpipe of the girl and choked her. Though doctors at a local hospital managed to revive her initially, the girl died within 24 hours.

Chittaranjan Behera, the surgeon, told TOI: "Aspiration of gastric contents resulting in death due to respiratory failure is not uncommon. However, this is the first such case involving accidental bite of a chilli at our hospital. It is rarely reported in medical-legal literature".

"Our throat has two pipes, one for food and the other for air. The former helps carry food from the mouth to the stomach while the latter allows respiration. The problem occurs when food or gastric fluid enter the wind pipe, as happened in this case. It causes respiratory failure if resuscitation is not conducted immediately", said Dr Sudhir Gupta, professor and head of forensic medicine department at AIIMS.

He added that normally our body protects against such mishaps through the act of coughing. But in the child's case, it is possible that the 'laryngeal cough reflex' was either poorly developed or inactive due to unconsciousness, leading to death.

In adults, Dr Gupta said, death due to aspiration of fluid in the wrong pipe is seen among alcoholics, when lack of consciousness hinders body's reflex mechanism.

Doctors say children cannot differentiate between edible and non-edible substances, so parents should ensure that substances such as chilli are kept away. "If a patient aspirates, his or her head should be placed side ways so that further aspira tion of gastric content is reduced", a doctor said.

(Source: The Times of India, Kolkata edition dated 2016-03-14)