A man who fell asleep with a toothpick in his mouth woke up in agony the following day – having accidentally swallowed it.
The 29-year-old went to A&E complaining of having severe abdominal pain all day, but wasn’t sure what had caused the issue.
He reported pain in the lower abdomen, which had worsened after he had eaten his evening meal, which contained chicken.
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Doctors were stumped, until a CT scan found a small “structure” measuring 3.7cm, which they assumed was an accidentally-ingested bone from the chicken dinner.
They ordered an emergency laparoscopy to investigate further, where they found the cause: a wooden toothpick, which had perforated the bowel, as reported by Need To Know.
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 further damage.
When doctors shared the findings with the patient, he “recalled sleeping with a toothpick in his mouth” the day prior to his symptoms starting, for unknown reasons.
The patient, treated in Saudi Arabia, was discharged three days post-op in stable condition.
While doctors initially suspected a chicken bone was to cause, 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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