Jaipur docs save life of 2-year-old shot by sibling with airgun

JAIPUR: A two-year-old girl, who was accidentally shot by her own sibling while playing with an airgun, got a new lease of life.
“The girl has been discharged from the hospital, but it could be life-threatening as the bullet was lodged inside the lungs of the child,” said Dr Sunita Ojha, paediatric surgeon of a private hospital.
The incident is a lesson to all parents to be careful in keeping such airguns very carefully, away from the reach of children and always unloaded, otherwise life-threatening incidents could take place. Doctors pointed out that parents should not consider air guns very casually or lightly as a toy.
The incident happened on August 5. The child was shot accidentally by her 6-year-old sibling while playing. She has been discharged from the hospital five days ago and has recovered after surgery. The boy found the loaded gun in the cupboard when maid was performing her routine cleaning work. Attracted by the gun, the child took it away without the knowledge of elders and shot his sibling accidentally while playing. “She had an entry wound on the left side of chest, crossing between the chest bone (sternum) and heart/vascular structures and penetrated in the right lung, resulting in collection of blood in the lung (lung contusion),” said Dr Ojha, who operated upon the girl.
The child was operated by a key hole surgery (thoracoscopy), through small holes of 5mm size. With the help of telescope and fine instruments, the pellet was removed thus avoiding large incision, helping in quick recovery of the child with a barely visible scar.
The air pistols, which typically come in .177 or .22 caliber, can be life threatening as they are designed to shoot pellets having aerodynamic shape which makes them extremely accurate.
Doctors pointed out that air gun pellets can pierce the skin, and softer areas of the body such as the eyes and mouth and a person can be severely injured being shot with the pellet and sometimes it can even kill someone.