Giant 15cm Hair Tie Removed From Elderly Woman's Esophagus

An approximately 80-year-old woman suffering from advanced dementia was saved in recent days after a large, 15-centimeter hair tie was removed from her esophagus. The patient, a resident of a village in the Galilee, was hospitalized in the geriatric department at Ziv Medical Center in Safed. She was rushed to the Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) and Head and Neck Surgery department experiencing choking, difficulty swallowing, severe respiratory distress, and a significant drop in oxygen saturation levels.

Doctors Marwan Karam and Alaa Safia inserted an optic fiber with a camera through the patient's nasal passage. They discovered a purple hair tie lodged at her larynx, obstructing over 80% of her airway. While one doctor used the optic fiber, the other inserted forceps into the patient's mouth to extract the foreign object.

According to Drs. Karam and Safia, the patient would have died had she not received timely treatment. Because her dementia prevented her from complaining or alerting her family, the obstruction went unnoticed. Immediately after the hair tie was removed, she resumed breathing normally and was returned to the geriatric ward in stable condition.

Professor Salman Zarka, the director of the medical center, praised the attentiveness of the geriatric department staff and the swift action of the ENT doctors, crediting them with saving the woman's life.