Doctors Pull Lighter Out Of Man's Stomach. He Swallowed It 20 Years Ago
It was only when doctors informed the patient, believed to be in his forties, that they suspected the foreign object could be a lighter, that he recalled swallowing one by mistake - in his twenties.
Last week, the man from Sichuan province went to see a doctor with complaints of stomach ache and blood in his stool. During an endoscopy of his stomach, doctors found a "long and black" object in his stomach.
It was only when doctors informed the patient that they suspected the object could be a lighter, that he recalled swallowing one by mistake - 20 years ago. The man told hospital staff the lighter never caused any symptoms until now, Shanghaiist quotes a local media outlet.
The man, believed to be in his forties, was ultimately taken into surgery and the object was removed from the man's gut after a second operation. The doctors couldn't retrieve the object in the first surgery because of its smooth surface. After bagging the lighter in the latex hood, in the second attempt that took only 10 minutes, doctors grabbed the object with forceps and guided it out through his oesophagus, Straits Times reported.
The lighter was found to be in a corroded state and unsurprisingly so, given the 20-year stay in the man's stomach. Doctors said the situation could have been life-threatening if the lighter had travelled to the man's intestines. Fortunately, the lighter that contains butane didn't leak inside his belly.