WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT. More than 20 years after she accidentally ended up with a thermometer lodged in her bottom, a woman has finally had the glass instrument removed. And doctors have warned she could have faced a much more serious fate
A woman has narrowly avoided a serious fate after doctors dislodged a thermometer from her bum, which had been stuck there for more than 20 years, following an agonising incident at school.
22 years ago, back when she was still a young primary school pupil, the patient – known only as Ms Hu – accidentally sat upon the glass measuring instrument and required urgent medical attention.
Recalling how the unfortunate incident occurred, Ms Hu shared: “I was sitting at my desk when a classmate asked to borrow my rubber. I dropped it on the floor and went to look for it.
“My classmate also searched for it under the desk, but he happened to be holding a thermometer in his hand, which was resting on my chair. I found it before him, so I went to sit down. The thermometer became stuck in the flesh of my left buttock.”
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At the time, medics did attempt to treat the then-schoolgirl, but they missed out on something crucial. After being rushed to the hospital, doctors attempted to remove the foreign object from Ms Hu’s buttock, and she knew then that something wasn’t right.
As reported by NeedToKnow, Ms Hu remembered: “When they took it out, it was much shorter. I started crying and said it shouldn’t be like that.”
She continued: “They did another X-ray, but this time it didn’t show anything because the glass was transparent; I guess it didn’t show up on the scan at the time.”
For the next two decades, Ms Hu, who is from Wuhan, China, went about her life with a 2cm-long piece of the broken thermometer lodged in her bum.
Then, just last month, an unrelated incident finally revealed the truth. After suffering an injury while cycling, Ms Hu became worried about a sacral fracture – a break to the large triangular bone at the base of the spine, which can result in pain to the lower back and buttocks.
After undergoing a 3D CT scan, astonished doctors finally spotted the shape of the thermometer, with a detailed image showing how the rest of the instrument was still lodged behind Ms Hu’s pelvis, decades after her painful classroom incident.
Doctors have said the woman is “lucky there wasn’t any mercury inside”, which could have had serious medical consequences. Dr Shang Ranran, attending physician at Wuhan No. 1 Hospital, stated: “It was about 2cm long. It was lucky there wasn’t any mercury inside. If so, it could have caused mercury poisoning and other very dangerous conditions.”
Depending on the type and extent of exposure, mercury poisoning can result in neurological problems, including memory loss and, in some serious cases, blindness. Patients may also suffer from respiratory issues, damage to the kidneys, and gastrointestinal issues, as per information published on the UK Government website.
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