Five days. That is how long a four-month-old girl had been vomiting green before her family brought her in from a village to see Dr Imran Patel, a pediatrician whose Instagram reel about the case has since spread widely.
Her belly was swollen. Tests confirmed intussusception: the bowel had telescoped, one stretch sliding inside the next and blocking the passage. In the reel, Patel calls the green vomiting “a red signal”. The child was a relative’s, he says, and he shared her case so other parents would recognise the warning.
The delay had a price. Patel says the operation took about three hours and went well, but surgeons had to remove a section of bowel damaged by the wait. The girl spent time in intensive care, then moved out once she stabilised. She is now fully recovered.
What the evidence says
The Week put the reel through a fact check on 29 June 2026 and found the claim sound. Persistent or repeated vomiting, particularly green or bile-stained vomit, is not normal in a baby and can point to an obstruction that needs urgent care.
The numbers back the focus on vomiting. A 2020 Indian study covering 19 hospitals recorded 1,588 intussusception cases in children aged 2 to 23 months, and 63.4% of them had vomiting. Not every case ends in surgery: a 2012 study found non-operative enema reduction worked 61.5% of the time.
Dr N. Karthik Nagesh of Aster CMI Hospital, where he directs the program, said vomiting that comes with poor feeding, lethargy or a distended abdomen calls for prompt medical evaluation. Left alone, he warned, the condition can lead to “obstruction, ischemia, necrosis, and perforation”.
Who gets it, and what to watch for
Dr Rohan, a consultant in pediatric gastroenterology at Madhukar Rainbow Children’s Hospital, calls intussusception a medical emergency. The blockage stops food and fluid moving through and can starve that piece of bowel of blood. Most patients are infants and toddlers, most often from 6 months up to 3 years of age. Frequently nobody finds a cause. Enlarged lymph nodes after a viral infection, polyps and Meckel’s diverticulum can raise the risk, and nothing reliably prevents it.
The warning signs: a child who suddenly screams with belly pain and pulls the knees up again and again, who vomits, turns limp and drowsy, has a bloated abdomen, or passes blood and mucus. Parents who see persistent pain, repeated vomiting, swelling or blood in the stool should see a doctor without delay. Green vomit in a four-month-old who has been sick for five days is the case Patel’s reel was built around.
Sources
- FACT CHECK: Is regular vomiting in children normal? It could be a sign of intussusception (The Week, Sakshi Srivastava)
- 4 month old baby had this color vomit for 5 days, needed emergency surgery; doctor warns every parent (Navbharat Times, Hindi; English translation of the relevant passages)
