Doctors at SSKM Hospital were successful in helping Pratima, a four-and-half-year-old girl to breathe comfortably again. She swallowed a bulb of 2mm diameter while playing outside her home 10 days back. The bulb got struck in her left bronchus - a branch of the windpipe.

Arunabha Sengupta, an associate professor at the ENT department of SSKM, said: "The bulb had got stuck in her left lung. Her condition was deteriorating fast and only surgery could save her. We had to make sure that the bulb did not break. We managed to pull it out by its filament."

Sengupta added: "We had to dislodge the filament, which was stuck in the bronchus wall, and pull it out. The glass portion could not be held with the bronchoscope as it would have broken. If the bulb had broken she would have required an open surgery of the lungs."

The condition of Pratima is stable. She is presently on oxygen support. She will be kept under observation for 24 hours.