A 2-year-old boy almost died after a popcorn kernel trapped into his lungs and triggered bacterial pneumonia.
The boy, Nash Goddard, briefly choked on popcorn and he quickly recovered while watching TV together with his parents in their home in Denver, Colorado.
However, the following day, he started coughing strangely and also had fever. His mother, Nicole, 39, called the doctor who told them to bring Nash to the hospital right away because of the worrisome symptoms.
The Parents Were Shocked
The parents immediately rushed the boy to the Children’s Hospital in Aurora, Colorado where the tests he underwent showed he had developed pneumonia due to the aspirated pieces of popcorn. The doctors ordered an x-ray and then a bronchoscopy to be sure.
The doctors explained that the boy’s body considered the popcorn pieces a foreign object and thus, formed pus pockets around it.
The boy spent 3 days in the hospital, but managed to fully recover and go back home.
Brave Boy Undergoes 2 Surgeries
His mother, a flight attendant, explained that Nash didn’t cough anything out when he chocked so they thought the piece was swallowed.
They were unaware that the popcorn can cause such problems- for them, this was a nightmare. She paced and cried the whole time while her boy was hospitalized.
The boy was put under anesthetics in order to perform two surgeries to eliminate the stuck popcorn from the fragile boy’s lungs.
The boy’s father, Jake, also 39 and also a flight attendant, was away because of work, but managed to come to the hospital and see the boy.
Nicole said that the surgeons successfully removed the pieces (6 of them!), but were worried that they didn’t remove all of the pieces because of the inflammation.
This is why a second surgery was performed to remove these pieces too and treat the bacterial pneumonia.
Warning Other Parents about Popcorn
After their ordeal, Nicole has been speaking and warning parents about the risks of children younger than 5 eating popcorn.
She said that they had given popcorn to Nash’s sisters who’re 9 and 7 and they didn’t have any issues. However, she was unaware that children under the age of 5 shouldn’t have popcorn.
She and her husband are very happy that their little boy is now okay.
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