A penny saved is a penny earned

12:43 PM EDT on Friday, June 18, 2004

How much is a second opinion worth?

For one Bullitt County family, you could say every cent in the world. With one child not sleeping and a mother's health starting to deteriorate, doctors specializing in sleep medicine found an unlikely cure.

You could also say that 2½-year-old Bates Waterworth is a walking piggy bank. Much to his mother's relief, Bates now keeps his penny in plain sight.

“He had swallowed the penny at such an early age it had attached itself to the esophagus,” says Bates’ mother, Karen.

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Bates swallowed the penny at the ripe old age of six months. Shortly after that, an allergist diagnosed the then-infant with asthma.

“When you looked down his throat, this is something doctors could not see,” says Karen.

Despite giving Bates regular doses of steroids, Karen Waterworth was at her wit’s end. For two years, Bates slept no more than 30 minutes a night.

Jamie DeVere/WHAS11 photojournalist Bates Waterworth holds the penny that spent two years lodged in his windpipe.

About three weeks ago, she brought him to Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville for a sleep study. But based on a hunch, a doctor ordered an x-ray instead of brain wave monitors.

“Let me tell you, when we all saw that, we thought we had the answer to the sleep problem,” says Dr. Jyoti Krishna. “We all heard a sigh of relief.”

What Dr. Krishna and others saw was a circular object lodged near the top of Bates’ esophagus.

“If things don't quite fit the picture, then sometimes it helps to take a second look,” Dr. Krishna says.

Over time, the penny began to corrode in Bates’ throat. It could have led to serious complications had doctors not found and removed it.

Karen Waterworth says her son is sleeping like a toddler now, and it seems as if he's taken more of a liking to his thumb. “I get emotional about it, because you know, to think your child could pass away,” she says.

Doctors sent a small camera down Bates’ throat and fished out the penny the same way he ingested it. Karen joked about hanging on to the penny as a family heirloom. She says she is now an epileptic and has a heart condition. She believes her declining health is a result of Bates’ irregular sleep patterns.

Web story produced by Jay Ditzer.