Three boys in three separate incidents successfully made homemade blowguns but upon using them inhaled the blowdarts, which lodged inside their bodies and presented medical complications.
In what a group of doctors are saying is the largest series of blowgun dart aspiration to date, each of the boys said they learned how to make the blowguns online. The doctors identified 20 websites that show how to make the guns, but few of the websites presented any safety warnings.
“Although all ultimately admitted their behavior, two were initially reluctant to admit aspirating the blowgun dart,” wrote the doctors in the journal Pediatrics. “Certainly, prompt treatment can result in good outcomes; however, serious potential complications, including death, could occur especially given the hesitance our patients showed in divulging the truth of the inciting event.”
Two of the boys were 15 and the other was 14. In the case of one of the 15-year-olds, in Columbus, Ohio, he was rushed to the operating room where doctors performed a bronchoscopy, according to CBS. The doctors pulled out the dart with a tube-like device, as well as cotton strands that were part of the blowgun.
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