WARNING: DISTRESSING IMAGES Doctors initially believed that the man had accidentally swallowed a chicken bone – but the truth was far more bizarre, and posed a serious threat to their patient
A man was left in agony after he fell asleep with a toothpick in his mouth – and accidentally swallowed it in his sleep.
The 29-year-old went to A&E having had severe abdominal pain all day, but he said wasn’t sure what was causing the issue. The pain was located in the lower abdomen, and had worsened after he had eaten his evening meal, which contained chicken.
Doctors were baffled until they sent him for a CT scan which unearthed a small “structure” measuring 3.7cm. They assumed it was an accidentally-ingested bone from his dinner.
The medics then ordered an emergency laparoscopy to investigate further, and that’s when they found the cause: a wooden toothpick, which had perforated the bowel, as reported by NeedToKnow.
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Doctors were able to remove it from the bowel, and noted the area had already sealed over, leaving them to apply surgifoam [a sterile sponge used to control bleeding] to the extraction site.
The rest of the area was examined but thankfully the toothpick hadn’t caused any further damage.
Doctors then went to share their findings with the patient, at which point he “recalled sleeping with a toothpick in his mouth” the day prior to the start of his symptoms, for unknown reasons.
The man, who was treated in Saudi Arabia, was able to be discharged three days post-operation, in stable condition.
It seems he had a lucky escape. A review of 136 cases of toothpick ingestion found it to be a medical emergency, with a mortality rate of nearly 10%.
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It comes after doctors were left stunned after a patient came to hospital with a pair of tweezers stuck inside his penis.
The unnamed 54-year-old was miraculously still able to pass urine despite the agony, but the foreign body did present some challenges. He arrived at the hospital in Indonesia, to horrified doctors who carried out a physical examination on him – where they found the tip of the tweezers protruding out.
To treat the man, medics pressed the base of his penis to prevent the tweezers from going further inside while an extraction was performed under anaesthetic. They also had to make an incision, but the object’s removal was partially facilitated by the wound itself.
A case study of the rare incident read: “Urethral injuries are never life-threatening, but if left untreated can lead to significant morbidity. Inserting a foreign object is a common practice for self-harm.”