The child had been playing with the watch while watching cartoons when he accidentally swallowed it.
The child had been playing with the watch while watching cartoons when he accidentally swallowed it.
Doctors removed a wristwatch from the stomach of a three-year-old boy in a timely procedure that took them just three minutes — with the device still working afterward.
The young boy’s parents took him to Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv after he swallowed the watch, a family heirloom that reportedly did not have a strap.
The child had been playing with the watch while watching cartoons on television when he accidentally swallowed it during a “tense moment.”
An image taken at the hospital showed the wristwatch, which appeared to be either gold or silver, inside the young boy’s stomach shortly before it was retrieved by a team of doctors.
A team of endoscopists led by Dariia Voroniak deemed that major surgery was not necessary. They removed the watch from the tot’s stomach in an outpatient procedure lasting only three minutes, the hospital said in a statement.
“The watch was obtained endoscopically, without incisions, thanks to the teamwork of the anesthesiology and endoscopy teams,” said Voroniak. “The boy was under general anesthesia with endotracheal intubation.”
The doctor confirmed that the watch was still operational when it was removed from the child’s stomach. “It showed the right time, even when it was in the stomach,” she said.
The parents, who have not been named, were able to take the watch home with them after the procedure.
Doctors say the child, who has also not been named, is doing well under medical supervision.
The hospital noted on social media that this was the second case they had encountered of a young child swallowing a watch, while the doctor cautioned parents to be more vigilant.
Details on the watch, including its year of manufacture or its make and model, were not released. However, comments on the social media post made by the lead doctor suggest the watch brand was “Mechta,” meaning dream. Photos of the watch appear to show the Russian word, written in Cyrillic script, on its face.
Mechta brand watches, typically ladies’ watches, were produced for a limited period during the 1960s by the Penza Watch Factory, originally the Third State Watch Factory of the Soviet Union. The brand reportedly used the caliber 1509 movement (15 jewels), which was notable for being the smallest Soviet caliber ever manufactured with a central second hand.
The brand was consolidated with all others produced by the factory in 1964, appearing under a new brand name: Zaria, meaning “dawn.” The factory is still in operation today, serving both domestic and international markets as part of the MakTime Group.
Edited by Siân Speakman and Kristen Butler
