Man Discovers Toothbrush In His Intestines 52 Years After Swallowing It As A Kid

Man Discovers Toothbrush In His Intestines 52 Years After Swallowing It As A Kid

When 64-year-old Yang visited the doctor with an odd stomach sensation, the last thing he expected was to confront a half-century-old childhood mistake.

Doctors in Anhui, China, discovered a toothbrush lodged in his small intestine.

"I thought it would dissolve on its own," he said, according to South China Morning Post.

(Image via South China Morning Post)

For 52 years, he reportedly felt no symptoms. It wasn't until recently that something felt off Hospital scans revealed a 17-centimetre-long toothbrush tucked inside his digestive tract.

The object was removed through endoscopic surgery, a procedure that took just 80 minutes

Yang, however, got extremely lucky. The brush had settled into a bend in the intestine and barely moved for five decades, making this one of the longest foreign objects the hospital had removed in three years.

"Under normal circumstances, a toothbrush in the intestines could rotate, press, and puncture the inner tissue," said a doctor surnamed Zhou.

The doctor added that the toothbrush could cause intestinal perforation and could have been fatal.

While Yang is expected to recover, doctors recommend regular body checks.

Ref: Man Discovers Toothbrush In His Intestines 52 Years After Swallowing It As A Kid