المملكة: After swallowing it 30 days ago, a burning battery was extracted from a child’s stomach without surgery

The rapid intervention within the urgent care system – one of the systems of the Saudi health care model – contributed to saving a child (5 years old), after he swallowed a burning battery that had been lodged in the colon for more than 30 days.

A medical team at the Maternity and Children’s Hospital in Makkah Al-Mukarramah – a member of the Makkah Al-Mukarramah Health Cluster – succeeded in extracting it using a lower endoscope for the first time in the hospital without the need for surgical intervention.

The Makkah Health Assembly explained that the child came to the emergency department suffering from previous health problems, and after conducting tests, it was found that there was a small incendiary battery lodged in Colon has been in the cecum for nearly a month, which required urgent intervention to avoid possible complications.

He indicated that the medical team succeeded in performing the operation via lower endoscope in just 45 minutes, without recording any complications, in an achievement that is considered the first of its kind at the level of endoscopy units in the region, given the rarity of such cases that often require open surgical intervention.

The health cluster added that the child left the hospital after three days of medical observation and is in good health, noting that The operation represents a qualitative leap in the capabilities of the Endoscopy Department, which is witnessing rapid development in its diagnostic and therapeutic services thanks to qualified personnel and modern technologies available at the hospital.

It is worth noting that the Endoscopy Department is Maternity and Children’s Hospital in Makkah Al-Mukarramah performed more than 576 upper and lower endoscopy cases during the years 2024 and 2025, which reflects the health cluster’s efforts to develop specialized care services for children, within the goals of health transformation and the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, which aims to facilitate access to health services and raise their quality.