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People Swallowing Odd Items

ramonmercado said:
"It was a tedious three-hour-long operation. He is an old patient and we had to be careful. We found 12 gold bars lying in a stack in his stomach."
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Couldn't he have inserted them through the other orifice? Would have saved him lots of trouble. :)
 
This case represents the largest number of individual swallowed objects I can recall ever being mentioned in such cases ...

Man Has Surgery to Remove 263 Coins, 100 Nails from Stomach

Doctors in India were shocked to find that a patient with stomach pain had swallowed hundreds of coins and nails, according to news reports.

The 35-year-old patient was recently admitted to the hospital with abdominal pain, and doctors initially thought he had food poisoning ...

But an endoscopy exam — which uses a flexible tube to view the digestive tract — revealed numerous metal objects. The doctors performed surgery, and eventually removed 263 coins, 100 nails, dozens of shaving blades and shards of glass, and a 6-inch piece of rusted iron shackle, the Independent said. In total, the collection of foreign objects removed from the patient weighed about 15 pounds (7 kilograms). ...

The patient, Maksud Khan, is thought to have mental health problems, and didn't tell his friends or family about his strange eating behavior.
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FULL STORY (With X-ray and photos of retrieved items):
https://www.livescience.com/61030-man-swallows-coins-nails.html
 
US woman dreams bad guys on a train want her engagement ring - swallows it.

Nightmare causes sleeping California woman to swallow engagement ring

A US woman has undergone surgery after removing and swallowing her engagement ring in her sleep.

Jenna Evans, 29, said she and her fiancé Bobby had been on a speeding train and she was forced to swallow the ring to protect it from "bad guys".

She woke at her home in California to realise the episode had been a dream, but saw her diamond ring was missing.

She said she knew exactly what had happened, woke up Bobby to explain, and the couple went to a hospital.

Ms Evans said she struggled to recall the situation to medics "because I was laughing/crying so hard". ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49712757
 
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Ascalon said:
US woman dreams bad guys on a train want her engagement ring - swallows it.
Wakes up to missing ring...
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Great story. I loved this line:-

Ms Evans, a San Diego resident, later had a procedure to remove the ring but said she was asked to sign release forms in case of her death.
"Then I cried a lot because I would be so mad if I died," she said.
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:D
 
This teen was lucky ... He inadvertently swallowed a sewing pin that ended up lodged in his heart.
A teen unknowingly swallowed a sewing pin. It pierced his heart.

When a teen swallowed a small sewing pin while tailoring his clothes, he didn't even notice. So it was a surprise to everyone when, some days later, doctors found it in a very unusual place — his heart.

The 17-year-old went to the emergency room after experiencing chest pain for three days, according to a report of the case, published July 29 in The Journal of Emergency Medicine. The teen said the pain was sharp, radiated to his back and was worse when lying down or breathing deeply.

The results of an electrocardiogram (EKG), or a test of the heart's electrical activity, were abnormal, and doctors were concerned the patient had perimyocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle and the surrounding membrane. Lab tests also showed the teen had increased levels of proteins in his blood that can indicate heart injury.

A CT scan of his chest showed there was an "linear metallic foreign" object lodged in his heart, the report said. The object was about 1.4 inches (3.5 centimeters) long and was jutting out of the heart's right ventricle, or the lower right chamber of the heart that pumps blood to the lungs. ...

He underwent open heart surgery to remove the object, which doctors found was indeed a sewing pin.

Foreign bodies have been found in the heart before, but they are rare, especially in children and teens, the report said. In 2016, doctors in China reported the case of a 48-year-old woman who experienced a stroke after a needle pierced her chest and became stuck in her heart, Live Science previously reported. ...

Doctors believe the pin migrated directly from his stomach into his heart, although it may have migrated from another place along the gastrointestinal tract, such as from the esophagus or or small intestine ...

Fortunately, the teen recovered after his surgery and "has had no complications to my knowledge," Mathews said.
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FULL STORY:
https://www.livescience.com/sewing-needle-in-teens-heart.html

PUBLISHED REPORT (Abstract only):
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0736467920305850
 
Wish I'd taken more photos at the UCL Pathology Museum at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead. This board of swallowed objects retrieved by surgery from children was donated by Great Ormond Street Hospital.

GOSH.jpg
 
Want to fake a heart attack? Swallow a battery!
Man's 'heart attack' was really side effect from swallowed battery

When a man arrived at the emergency room, it looked to doctors like he was having a heart attack. But that was a false alarm: The man had actually swallowed a battery that messed with his electrocardiogram (EKG), a measure of the heart's electrical activity, according to a new report of the case.

Once doctors removed the battery, the EKG returned to normal, according to the report, published Monday (Nov. 23) in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

"If someone swallows a single battery or multiple batteries, the electrocardiogram can mimic changes consistent with an acute [myocardial infarction, or heart attack]," said Dr. Guy L. Mintz, director of cardiovascular health and lipidology at Northwell Health's Sandra Atlas Bass Heart Hospital in Manhasset, New York, who was not on the case. ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/man-heart-attack-swallowed-battery.html
 
In Mental Health settings AAA Batteries, either pierced or un-pierced is pretty common.

The human body is an amazing thing and usually passes it even if you've tried to tamper with it. You get very dodgy guts for a while so it's not recommended.
 
A toddler in Maine swallowed a small battery, and his sister's quick thinking helped get him to help to get it removed.
Maine girl's quick thinking helps save brother who swallowed small battery

Thanks to the quick thinking of his sister, a 3-year-old Maine boy is doing OK after he swallowed a small battery. ...

Gretchen Larkin, of Biddeford, Maine, said her son was playing with an electronic drawing pad when his sister came running to her.

"She told me Colt swallowed a coin, and I was like, 'Where did you find a coin?'" Larkin said.

The coin turned out to be a battery.

"He said his throat hurt. He pointed to it," Larkin said.

She immediately called poison control.

"Then they asked me if I had any honey," Larkin said.

She did and gave some to her son. Larkin then rushed him to the hospital. After an overnight stay, several X-rays and two surgeries, the battery was removed. ...

Northern New England Poison Control Center Director Dr. Karen Simone said they have had 93 cases of children under the age of 5 swallowing batteries between 2016 and 2020.
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FULL STORY: https://www.wtae.com/article/maine-...-brother-who-swallowed-small-battery/35954528
 
Mythopoeika said:
Can't read the full article (not available in my region).
Honey?
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Don't call me "honey" ... :evillaugh:

But seriously ... Here's the additional excerpt explaining the honey:

Simone said batteries can cause a burn if they sit against tissue in the body.
"Honey is a bit acidic, and it neutralizes things a bit and coats the battery a bit and that leads to protection of the esophagus," Simone said.
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The only other substantive point in the full story was that the kid is fine now.
 
This toddler suffered substantial damage to his digestive system after swallowing 16 magnetic balls from a desk toy. Such cases illustrate the dangers in small children swallowing small items and the added risks when those items are strongly magnetized.
A 2-year-old from Florida is hospitalized after complications from swallowing 16 magnetic balls

... Hannah Arrington told CNN that Konin, the youngest of her five children, found the pieces to the toy, commonly known as a Buckyball or Buckycube, after one of his older siblings brought it home from school in April.

The toys are marketed ... are composed of multiple small, high-powered magnetic balls.

Konin began having abdominal pain and scheduled a doctor's appointment. But they decided to take him to the emergency room ...

Doctors found that Konin had swallowed 16 magnets that became linked together in his intestines, creating holes from his stomach all the way to his colon ...

"We got rushed from our local hospital to Arnold Palmer (Hospital for Children)," Arrington said. "He got the surgery done and they took out almost three feet of his small intestine. He also had to get the holes in his stomach repaired, holes in his large intestine repaired, and a part near his colon repaired as well."

After about a week in the hospital, Konin was discharged and sent home. But he started losing weight and on Wednesday, he was readmitted to Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando. His mother said he was diagnosed short bowel syndrome and has to be on a feeding tube. ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/16/us/2-year-old-swallowed-16-magnetic-balls-trnd/index.html
 
EnolaGaia said:
This toddler suffered substantial damage to his digestive system after swallowing 16 magnetic balls from a desk toy. Such cases illustrate the dangers in small children swallowing small items and the added risks when those items are strongly magnetized.

FULL STORY: https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/16/us/2-year-old-swallowed-16-magnetic-balls-trnd/index.html
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Little kids put things in their mouths all the time. Where I live, when a baby does that they're said to be 'testing' it for whether it's edible.

My rule was that children under about 4 and certainly 3 shouldn't have access to anything inedible that's smaller than a satsuma.
 
EnolaGaia said:
This teen was lucky ... He inadvertently swallowed a sewing pin that ended up lodged in his heart.


FULL STORY:
https://www.livescience.com/sewing-needle-in-teens-heart.html

PUBLISHED REPORT (Abstract only):
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0736467920305850
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I do a lot of sewing and I never EVER hold pins in my mouth. Too dangerous.

(You can avoid it by making yourself chic little wrist-mounted pincushions. First thing I do when starting a project is to put one one on. It reminds me to never EVER etc.)
 
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Man somehow swallows Nokia 3310 phone and then needs doctors to remove it​

Doctors in Kosovo had to help the unidentified 33-year-old man after the phone had become lodged in his stomach.

It was too large for him to digest, and put his life in danger as corrosive battery acid could have leaked out.

​

Skender Teljaku, who led the medical team, shared photos on Facebook of the phone after it was removed, as well as X-ray and endoscope images while it was still inside.

He managed to remove the foreign object without cutting into the stomach by taking it out in three pieces with endoscopy.

There were ‘no complications’, he said.

According to local media, the man took himself to hospital in Pristina as he was in pain from swallowing the object.
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Here it is being extracted. Looks a different colour though..
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To this after removal pic...
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There is this bloke known as Stevie Starr who swallows weird things professionally. He seems to be doing the talent show circuit internationaly of late although I first saw him on Australian T.V (it must be) 25 years or more ago.
I don't know if there's a trick to it or not, but he seems legitimate and possibly slightly crazy.
There are plenty of videos of him on Youtube, but here's a couple below.
I wonder how he discovered his talent/s?


 
Lord Lucan said:
There is this bloke known as Stevie Starr who swallows weird things professionally. He seems to be doing the talent show circuit internationaly of late although I first saw him on Australian T.V (it must be) 25 years or more ago.
I don't know if there's a trick to it or not, but he seems legitimate and possibly slightly crazy.
There are plenty of videos of him on Youtube, but here's a couple below.
I wonder how he discovered his talent/s?


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I have no idea how he does the swallowing, but there is some sleight-of-hand trickery going on in the first video (the ring and padlock bit).
He seems to be missing a few teeth, which explains how he can put in fairly large objects.
 
My mother's aunt swallowed straight pins while she was sewing and drinking vodka. She didn't know what was wrong until she went to the doctor because of pain in her throat and back. The doctors had to do surgery to remove the pins.
 
Dr told him he needed more iron in his diet.

Doctors in Lithuania have removed more than a kilogram of nails and screws from the stomach of a man who started swallowing metallic objects after quitting alcohol.

The man, who was not identified for reasons of patient confidentiality, was admitted to hospital in the Baltic port city of Klaipeda with severe abdominal pain.

An X-ray of his stomach showed up pieces of metal – some measuring up to 10cm (4in).

“During the three-hour operation with X-ray control, all foreign bodies, even the smallest ones, in the patient’s stomach were removed,” said surgeon Sarunas Dailidenas.

The hospital provided local media with a photograph of a surgical tray heaped with nails and screws.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...find-kilo-of-nails-and-screws-in-mans-stomach
 
ramonmercado said:
Dr told him he needed more iron in his diet.

Doctors in Lithuania have removed more than a kilogram of nails and screws from the stomach of a man who started swallowing metallic objects after quitting alcohol.

The man, who was not identified for reasons of patient confidentiality, was admitted to hospital in the Baltic port city of Klaipeda with severe abdominal pain.

An X-ray of his stomach showed up pieces of metal – some measuring up to 10cm (4in).

“During the three-hour operation with X-ray control, all foreign bodies, even the smallest ones, in the patient’s stomach were removed,” said surgeon Sarunas Dailidenas.

The hospital provided local media with a photograph of a surgical tray heaped with nails and screws.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...find-kilo-of-nails-and-screws-in-mans-stomach
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He started doing this when he stopped drinking. There's something seriously wrong there.
 
escargot said:
He started doing this when he stopped drinking. There's something seriously wrong there.
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My partner says this is the first time in a long long time he has seen a story about a Lithuanian that’s NOT about him being a serious criminal. Although, i suppose, he still could be…… Partner has Lithuanian heritage btw
 
A man being booked into an Alabama jail was referred instead to a hospital after a scan detected a shotgun shell he'd apparently swallowed.
Body scan reveals shotgun shell inside Alabama prisoner

A man being booked into an Alabama jail wound up at a hospital rather than behind bars after a scan revealed a shotgun shell in his abdomen.

Prisoners entering the Morgan County Jail routinely undergo a body scan when being admitted, and a recent image showed what appeared to be a shell from a .410-gauge shotgun that had been swallowed inside a person, spokesperson Mike Swafford said Thursday. ...

The man, who had been arrested by another law enforcement agency in the county, was later released on his own recognizance, Swafford said, and it was not clear what happened to the shell. ...

... While baggies or other containers holding drugs are sometimes uncovered inside prisoners, he said, finding ammunition was unusual.

“We don’t see a shotgun shell very often,” he said. “We speculate it had drugs in it but we don’t really know.”
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FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/oddities-alabama-decatur-a26ee60636833ce52e96c7b389614f23
 

Doctors find 233 coins, batteries and screws in man’s stomach​

Burhan Demir – from Ipekyolu, Turkey – took his younger brother to hospital after he complained about abdominal pain.

But when doctors performed an endoscopy with ultrasound and X-ray scans they were amazed to discover 233 items in the 35-year-old’s stomach.
One surgeon – named only as Dr Binici – said: ‘During the surgery, we saw that one or two of the nails had passed through the stomach wall.

‘We saw that there were two metal pieces and two stones of different sizes in the large intestine.

‘We found that there were batteries, magnets, nails, coins, pieces of glass and screws. We cleaned his stomach completely.

‘It is not a situation we see in adults, it is mostly in childhood and unconsciously swallowed foreign bodies.

‘It can be seen in psychiatric patients, prisoners or abuse cases in the adult age group.’
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This Irish woman swallowed 50 AA / AAA batteries. This is believed to be the largest known number of batteries in the GI tract at one time. The full published case report is accessible at the link below.
Doctors remove 50 AA and AAA batteries from woman's gut and stomach

Doctors in Ireland removed 50 batteries from a woman's gut and stomach after she swallowed them in an apparent act of deliberate self-harm.

The woman, 66, was treated at St. Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin after ingesting an initially "unknown number" of cylindrical batteries ... An X-ray revealed a multitude of batteries in her abdomen, although thankfully none appeared to be obstructing her gastrointestinal (GI) tract and no batteries showed signs of structural damage. ...

The treatment team initially took a "conservative" approach, meaning they observed the patient closely to see if and how many batteries would pass through the GI tract on their own. Over a one-week period, she passed five AA batteries, but X-rays taken over the following three weeks showed that the vast majority of the batteries had failed to continue progressing through her body. By this time, the patient was experiencing diffuse abdominal pain. ...

The woman then underwent a laparotomy, in which surgeons made an incision to access her abdominal cavity. They found that the stomach, pulled down by the weight of the batteries, had become distended and stretched into the area above the pubic bone. The team then cut a small hole in the stomach and removed 46 batteries from the organ; these included both AA and AAA batteries. ...

Four additional batteries, stuck in the colon, were "milked" into the rectum and removed through the anus — this brought the total number of ingested batteries to 55. A final X-ray scan then confirmed that the woman's GI tract was officially battery-free and she went on to have an "uneventful recovery."

"To the best of our knowledge, this case represents the highest reported number of batteries ingested at a single point in time," the doctors wrote in their case report. ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/ingestion-of-fifty-five-batteries-case
PUBLISHED CASE REPORT: https://imj.ie/management-of-cylindrical-battery-ingestion/
 
Doctor who thought man had tumour baffled to find 63 spoons in his stomach

Dr Rakesh Khuran performed the two-hour operation on the 32-year-old man in Uttar Pradesh, India after an X-ray showed that his severe abdominal pains were actually caused by 63 spoons in his stomach that he'd been forced to ingest

When the doctor asked the patient why there were 63 spoons in his stomach, he said he was forced to ingest them.
The patient's family believe he was fed the spoons whilst undergoing treatment for a drug addiction at a local clinic.

He made the spoon consumption easier on himself by breaking off the oval part and only swallowing the handles.

The doctors believe the patient is not in the "right state of mind" and likely suffering from a psychological condition called pica.
Pica sufferers crave non-food items like coal, metal, clay or dirt.

Dr Khurana added: “No person in their right state of mind would do that. It must be very difficult and painful to swallow the spoons. It is abnormal behaviour."
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He made the spoon consumption easier on himself by breaking off the oval part and only swallowing the handles.
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This is the part I found strangest of all ... If he was already suffering discomfort from swallowing whole spoons, why would he choose to swallow only the long bits that were most likely to jam up in his GI tract and poke his internal tissues?
 
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