Doctors at the Institute of Child Health, Egmore removed a needle from a year old boy's lungs after one and a half hours operation. The child swallowed the needle when he was at his grand father's home at Ariyankulam, Tirunelveli district. He told his about it to the relatives immediately and they rushed him to a near by hospital, from where he was referred to a medical institute in Nagercoil for treatment.

The case required special attention and he was transferred to the Institute of Child Health in Chennai. The needle went down his wind pipe and got embedded in his right lung. The doctors tried to remove the foreign object with out resorting to surgical procedure. But the other processes did not help to remove the needle, the doctors had to go in for surgery. Dr P Philip Chandran, senior paediatric surgeon, Dr SV Senthilnathan, Dr Muthukumar, Dr Mohan Kumar, and anaesthetist, Dr Shanta, performed the 1 1/2 hour operation in the hospital.