By: Akanksha
Doctors at Kolkata Medical College and Hospital have successfully removed a magnet stuck in the right lung of a six year old boy after multiple attempts using traditional medical tools failed. The child, Arafat Ali from Maheshpur, Baduria, North 24 Parganas, was brought into the hospital by his mother on Tuesday as he was coughing and struggling to breathe after accidentally swallowing a toy magnet. The magnet had travelled through his airway and become lodged in the right bronchus. After 12 failed attempts to remove the magnet using forceps, Dr. Diptanshu Mukhopadhyay went to a local lathe workshop in Maniktala, central Kolkata, on Thursday morning to have a stronger, specially designed magnet made by Prabhakar Karar. The magnet was attached to the forceps, and on the thirteenth attempt, the lodged magnet was successfully removed.
Tracheobronchial foreign body aspiration (FBA) is a medical condition that occurs when a foreign body enters the airway and becomes lodged in the trachea or bronchi. It can obstruct breathing and cause sudden coughing, choking, and respiratory distress, particularly in children.. Foreign body aspiration is defined as the accidental entry of a foreign body into the airway, causing obstruction to breathing and sudden coughing, choking, and respiratory distress in children.1 Anatomical research has shown that most inhaled foreign bodies will enter the right bronchus in children due to the right bronchus being larger, shorter, and straighter than the left bronchus.2
Bronchoscopy is commonly used to examine and remove foreign bodies from children's airways. Rigid bronchoscopy remains an important approach because it allows doctors to maintain airway control and use different instruments to retrieve the object. The choice of retrieval technique depends on the foreign body's size, shape and location.
The child was admitted to the ENT department on Tuesday and was stabilized. A CT scan and X-ray showed that a small, amulet-shaped magnet, 2.5 cm long and 4 mm in diameter, had entered the airways and become lodged in the right bronchus.
Associate Professor Dr. Diptanshu Mukhopadhyay told The Telegraph that due to its unique shape and structure, the foreign body had entered the trachea and moved into the right bronchial tree, causing respiratory distress, and also posed a serious threat to the child’s life.
On Wednesday, doctors attempted to remove the foreign body using a bronchoscope. Associate Professor Dr. Diptanshu Mukhopadhyaya attempted to remove the magnet with forceps and failed after four attempts. Prof. Soumendranath Bandyopadhyay, head of the ENT department, then took over, but also failed to remove the foreign body. In total there were twelve attempts.
They could not get a proper grip on the magnet; every time they tried to pull the magnet up, it kept slipping out, Mukhopadhyay told Press Trust of India.
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Why Did Kolkata Doctors Consider Tracheostomy and Chest Surgery?
A tracheostomy was done, an incision made in the throat, to allow the child to continue breathing. Doctors also attempted to remove the foreign body using the new airway, but were unsuccessful. The ENT team then considered a thoracotomy, an incision in the chest cavity. They contacted SSKM Hospital, but could not secure a bed in the paediatric intensive care unit by Thursday morning.
As traditional methods had failed, doctors decided to try using a magnet to remove the foreign body. On Thursday morning, Dr. Mukhopadhyay went to a lathe workshop in Maniktala, Central Kolkata. He met worker Prabhakar Kanrar, who lives in Shyampur, Howrah, and showed him the X-rays of the child.
Karar looked at the X-rays and said that the magnet was not very strong, as such magnets are commonly used in toys. This was why the metal medical tools were not working. He then offered to make a stronger magnet with a specific shape, under 3 mm in size, that could be attached to the forceps.
According to Sangbad Pratidin, two workshop workers, Prabhakar Karar and Dipankar Karar, were involved in making the custom magnet.
He was asked to make a strong magnet with a specific size so it could be attached to the forceps. He made it as requested by the doctors. He was glad that his creation helped save a child’s life, Karar told Press Trust of India. The doctor came around 8 a.m. and left around 9 a.m. The workshop workers reportedly refused to accept payment for making the magnet.
The specially made magnet was brought to the hospital later that day. The doctors quickly got ready to attempt to remove the foreign body. A team of 6 doctors led by Bandyopadhyay, including anesthetists Debhashis Ghosh and Atreyee Ghosh, Diptanshu Mukhopadhayay, Shubhrajeet Naskar, and Udita Soren, performed the operation. The specially designed magnet was attached to the tip of the bronchoscope forceps.
During the procedure, the custom-made magnet initially failed to attract the lodged foreign body because the magnets' like poles were facing each other, causing them to repel. Doctors reversed the orientation of the custom magnet, allowing the opposite poles to attract. The custom magnet then successfully attracted the lodged foreign body.
This successfully attracted the foreign body, which had been lodged in the child’s lung for 3 days. After 13 attempts, the magnet was removed through the tracheostomy opening. Doctors made sure the foreign body did not slip further down the airways.
After the operation, the child’s airways were back to normal, and he was moved to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU).
They have won a battle. Air is passing through both of his lungs, and he is recovering in the ICU, Mukhopadhyay told Times Now.
Small, powerful magnets can pose serious health risks to children if swallowed or inhaled. A magnet lodged in the airway can cause choking or respiratory obstruction. Swallowing multiple magnets is particularly dangerous because they can attract each other across intestinal walls, potentially causing tissue damage, perforation and intestinal obstruction.
The US Consumer Product Safety Commission warns that injuries from magnet ingestion and inhalation can be serious and sometimes fatal. Health Canada advises seeking immediate medical attention if a child is suspected of swallowing a magnet, even if symptoms are not apparent. Parents should keep small, loose magnets and toys containing accessible magnets away from young children.5,6
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References:
Rose, D., and L. Dubensky. “Airway Foreign Bodies (Archived).” In StatPearls. Treasure Island, FL: StatPearls Publishing, 2023. Last updated August 7, 2023.
Cramer, N., N. Jabbour, M. M. Tavarez, and R. S. Taylor. “Foreign Body Aspiration (Archived).” In StatPearls. Treasure Island, FL: StatPearls Publishing, 2023. Last updated July 31, 2023.
Salih, A. M., M. Alfaki, and D. M. Alam-Elhuda. “Airway Foreign Bodies: A Critical Review for a Common Pediatric Emergency.” World Journal of Emergency Medicine 7, no. 1 (2016): 5–12.
Cole, Simon, Sophie Wilkinson, and Haytham Kubba. “Rigid Bronchoscopy Is the Gold Standard Management of Inhaled Foreign Bodies in Children: Myth or Maxim?” Breathe 22, no. 2 (2026): 260039. https://doi.org/10.1183/20734735.0039-2026.
US Consumer Product Safety Commission. “Magnets.” https://www.cpsc.gov/Safety-Education/Safety-Education-Centers/Magnets.
Health Canada. “Magnet Safety.” October 2025. https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/toy-safety/magnets.html.
(Rh/APC/MSM)