It takes five years for Australian parents to learn the truth behind their 8-year-old son’s oppressive cough.
Marley Enjakovic, an 8-year-old boy who had been struggling to breathe for the last five years, was found with a plastic flower stuck in his throat. It took two surgeries to locate the toy.
After numerous incorrect diagnoses and worsening symptoms, doctors discovered the toy stuck in his airway.
Marley’s mother, Skye Enjakovic, said that he swallowed the tiny flower, which left him with a persistent cough and breathing problems, about five years ago as that was the time the issues started as reported by Daily Mail.
According to Skye, Marley would always throw up his food as a toddler or couldn’t finish a football or a basketball match due to his breathing difficulties. Skye initially thought probably it was because he was eating too fast.
However, in December last year, Marley became critically ill and had to be rushed to Women’s and Children’s hospital in an ambulance.
The surgeons removed the arts-and-craft piece, which was a plastic flower that had gotten lodged in the boy’s throat. Marley spoke to Sunrise on Tuesday morning from his hospital bed at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital. He was set to undergo surgery to repair damage to his airway.
Skye narrated the details of an online fundraiser by the hospital where she said,
“His cough would not stop making it hard for him to catch his breath, at the arrival of the hospital his oxygen levels were low and they could hear a lot of secretions in his lungs and ordered a chest X-ray to check for phenomena. Luckily his X-ray pictures were taken a little bit higher up this time and they realized there was something going on with his esophagus and his trachea.”
Skye was shocked that the toy was blocking her boy’s throat. However, she was glad that it was simply only a toy and not something more serious.
“I was absolutely shocked. But also really relieved, to be honest, because out of all these years, I finally had an answer,” she said. “My main concern at that point in time was that he was actually born with that condition. Because if he had been born with it, he would have had other issues. To know it was caused by a foreign body, it was a slight bit of relief for me. My message to other parents is that if you feel like there is something wrong, just keep pushing for it. I am so glad I did because it means I have him today.”
The plastic was removed earlier this year and the now eight-year-old has undergone major surgery to repair his airway and esophagus.
