From ordinary chickenpox to pneumonia, the threat of lung death and failure of vital organs. Lviv surgeons saved an 8-year-old girl who could have died from bacterial infection of the entire body.
At the end of December, second-grader Margarita fell ill with chicken pox, commonly known as chicken pox. In addition to the rash, the girl had a high temperature. During the week of her illness, Margarita became even worse: she developed a cough and shortness of breath. Then the girl’s mother sounded the alarm – her daughter was taken away by an ambulance. Margarita ended up in the intensive care unit of an infectious disease hospital. Doctors found out: due to chicken pox, the body weakened and the girl fell ill with pneumonia.
The disease was not amenable to treatment and complications arose. So Margaritka was sent to Lviv for rescue. Specialists of St. Nicholas Children’s Hospital of the First Medical Association of Lviv examined the girl: they performed a bronchoscopy, CT and X-ray. And then the diagnosis was made – bacterial destruction and atelectasis of the right lung, right-sided pyopneumothorax and a functioning pulmonary-pleural fistula. Simply put, the child’s right lung was surrounded by pus. The organ through which this pus and air entered the pleural cavity even rotted.
“The pleural cavity is the so-called box in which our lungs are located. It is impossible to allow air to get there, and even more so manure. Due to the fact that Margaritka had both pus and air in her pleural cavity, her right lung could no longer function normally. The organ did not contract and did not straighten during breathing, as it should be in the norm”, says the head of the surgical department of St. Mykola’s Hospital, Denys Konoplitskyi.
The girl’s condition was life-threatening, so it was necessary to operate immediately. Without urgent intervention, the right lung could die. Moreover, the bacterial process threatened to spread to all other vital organs, and then they would fail, which would lead to the death of the little patient.
Hospital specialists decided to operate minimally invasively. After three punctures of 5 mm each, the surgeons performed a thoracoscopy: they cleaned the lung and pleural cavity of pus as much as possible. The pressure dropped and the lungs expanded. Next, it was important that the fistula, i.e., the rotten formation, was delayed. For this, the doctors installed a drain, with the help of which they continued to suck out the pus and free the lung. And it worked. The pus came out completely, and the formation tightened.
The girl’s lungs are already functioning normally and she can breathe fully. Margaritka spent a long time in the hospital wards. Above all, the girl likes to draw and has been studying at an art school for a long time. Now she can finally go back there. Margaritka has already been discharged home – healthy.