Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1880 — A Whistle in the Windpipe. [ARTICLE]

A Whistle in the Windpipe.

A remarkable accident, says the London Lancet, which occurred recently, and ended fatally, at Sherborne, in Dorset, illustrates the danger attending a very common j uvenile practice. Small tin whistles, which enable boys to imitate “Punch,” are sold in large quantities. A boy named Ridout made an imitation of this toy, and was using it about four months ago, when it slipped into his throat. All efforts to 'dislodge it were unsuccessful, and about a month since the boy became an in-patient of Yeatman Hospital, Sherborne, and was under the treatment of Drs. Williams and Davies for a month, during which time it was ascertained that the obstacle had got down deep into the trachea, and appeared to be fixed there; but as tho symptoms were not urgent it was decided to wait, and at the expiration of the term he left the hospital. A day or two afterward his parents wished to get him admitted again, but on the next morning he was discovered dead in bed. He had appeared better during the previous day, and had been out for a walk in the country. On a post-mortem examination the piece of tin was discovered impacted in the larynx. It had worked its way upward, and got fixed in the cricoid cartilage. Here slight ulceration set in, which liberated two of the four corners of the little square of tin, and allowed it to turn on the axes of the other two comers. As long as the obstacle lay edge-ways breathing went on, but the instant the piece fell flat the breath was completely stopped, and death oocurred. Prince Leopold of England will shortly be created Duke of Kent.