Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: CEN

The mum of a hapless five-year-old boy who had a coin stuck in his throat for six days after putting it in his mouth is demanding that the state pays for the operation.

Local media report the youngster, who has not been named in reports, put the coin in his mouth and swallowed it before running home crying in the city of Bucaramanga, in the central Colombian department of Santander.

The boy’s mother, Amanda Mora Nino, took her son to the San Pablo hospital in the city as the coin had become stuck in her son’s oesophagus.

Pictures Credit: CEN

The doctors reportedly took X-rays of the boy and gave the woman some liquids for her son to swallow which they said would help push the coin down his throat.

However, an X-ray the day after showed the coin was still there but the health authorities of EPS Salud Vida would not order his transfer to another medical centre with the necessary facilities to remove the coin.

The mother reported the case to the Ombudsman and took her son to the Santander Hospital in the city, but was told they did not have a specialist who could remove the coin.

She said: “They thought a surgeon could possibly try to remove the coin, but the catheter did not reach there.”

The woman then decided to pay to have her son transferred to another hospital where the coin was removed. She is now demanding the state reimburse her for the cost of the transfer and treatment as her health insurers are refusing to pay for it.

Javier Martinez, head of the emergency room at Santander Hospital, said to local media: “He arrived with a strange object in his oesophagus which generated problems with eating, but he was stable. The health authorities were asked to transfer him to another place”.

By this point the boy was being fed through an IV drip and then had to wait for some days to be transferred to another hospital as there were no ambulances available, according to reports.