Key points from today’s guests:

Linda French, accidentally swallowed hearing aid

• At age 86, Linda had daily routines that she regularly followed.
• One morning she overslept and in a rush to take her medicine, which was in a bedside container, she accidentally grabbed the wrong container and swallowed the contents – a hearing aid and earrings she placed there the night before.
• At a hospital ER, a scope removed the earrings, but they said the hearing aid would pass.
• When it did, the hearing aid battery was missing, which became a big concern.
• A CAT scan revealed that tiny battery had lodged in her appendix, which was very rare.
• She had to have an emergency appendectomy at The University of Kansas Health System to have it removed.
• Linda now stores her hearing aids across the bedroom at night.

Dr. Jocelyn Hunter, trauma surgeon, The University of Kansas Health System

• The problem with batteries is when they become lodged somewhere.
• Oftentimes in our pediatric patients, we will see it lodged in their esophagus and if it stays there, it can have a chemical reaction which actually causes a burning of the tissue there.
• So if it passes through your stomach, that's okay. But this situation was much different because it got stuck in her appendix, which is a tiny little structure.
• If it stayed there for a long period of time, it could have started to burn the tissue and make her appendix rupture.
• Linda’s appendix had to be removed to avoid any serious damage.

Dr. Jessica Kalender-Rich, geriatric medicine, The University of Kansas Health System

• Swallowing a hearing is not common, but swallowing the wrong pills can be really common. It's important for two people living in the home to keep those things really separated.
• We've seen many cases where people will take the wrong person's medicine.
• If you have children in the home, or people living in the home that are cognitively impaired enough that they really are going to potentially take the wrong medicines or pills, it's always important to lock those things up high where somebody can't reach them, and where they can't accidentally be taken.
• Balance that with putting medicine in a place that you are going to remember to take them as prescribed.
• A medicine box, with compartments for the days of the week, is a good way to help people remember if they’ve taken their medicine that day.

Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of Infection Prevention and Control, The University of Kansas Health System

• The hospital COVID count for this week is at 12 inpatients, the same as last week.
• A new study published in the British Medical Journal looked at the risk of clots and heart issues for people who had COVID and it compared vaccinated people to unvaccinated people.
• We know that COVID can cause a higher risk of people having blood clots, especially in their lungs and in their legs. We also know it can have an increased risk on those people for heart events, like heart attack or stroke.
• They actually looked at 10 million people who were vaccinated, and they compare that to 10 million people who were unvaccinated.
• What they found out was that people who got vaccinated actually had a lower risk of having those complications.
• Within the first 30 days after COVID vaccination, you had a 80 percent reduction in your chance of having heart failure after COVID. For things like ischemic stroke, heart attack, and blood clots, they found that it was just over about 50 percent reduction in risk for those complications.

Monday, Mar. 25 at 8 a.m. is the next Morning Medical Update. Hear the story about a breast cancer patient who wanted to avoid chemotherapy at all costs. How faith, hope, and science helped her through the journey.

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