Infants choking following blind finger sweep

Abstract

In stressful situations, people usually use finger sweep to remove pharyngeal foreign bodies from the mouth. This article reports on three cases of death of infants following the use of this technique. A total of 26 cases of choking caused by foreign bodies aspiration in the upper and lower respiratory passages involving children younger than 11 years of age autopsied at the Forensic Department of University of Jordan between 1996 and 2006 were reviewed. Blind finger sweep to remove pharyngeal foreign bodies were reported in three crying infants. All of these cases were younger than 1 year of age and choked on a chickpea, a marble and a short pencil. Diversity, size, shape and smoothness of the surface are the main characteristics that render the foreign bodies less easily caught by fingers and make them easily enter the respiratory passage. These cases showed that blind finger sweep in crying infants is not only dangerous but can be a fatal maneuver.