Doctors in China have removed a toothbrush from the intestine of a 64-year-old man who went to the hospital, complaining of stomach pain. As it turns out, the 17-cm toothbrush had been stuck in his body for 52 years. Doctors found the alien item lodged in the small intestine while performing a regular digestive system check.
The man, identified as Yang, said he remembered swallowing the toothbrush at the age of 12 but was too scared to tell his parents about it, according to a report in South China Morning Post. Mr Yang believed that the toothbrush would dissolve on its own and went about his life normally. Up until now, he had not felt anything untoward.
After the discovery, the doctors performed endoscopic surgery on Mr Yang and removed the dental implement out of body in 80 minutes. The doctors said it was the longest it had taken at the hospital to remove an item from a patient's digestive system in the past three years.
As per medical experts, a toothbrush in the intestine could move around and puncture the inner tissue, causing intestinal perforation that could be fatal. In Mr Yang's case, the toothbrush was fortunately lodged in a crook of the intestine and barely moved for decades.
As the news of Mr Yang's successful item retrieval went viral, social media users said he was incredibly lucky that the brush had not caused any damage to his body all these years.
“How lucky is he to survive with a toothbrush in his body for five decades?" said one user, while another added: “Naughty things like this, especially from half a century ago, might really end up with the kid being beaten harshly by their parents."
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Previous instance
This is not the first instance when a patient with a toothbrush lodged inside his body has been found in China. In 2019, a hospital in Guangdong province removed a 14-centimetre toothbrush that he swallowed 20 years ago.
The patient, a 51-year-old man surnamed Li, was admitted to the hospital for abdominal pain, and a CT scan revealed a mysterious item in his duodenum. Mr Li then told doctors it could be a toothbrush he swallowed in a suicidal attempt 20 years ago, when he was diagnosed with HIV contracted from using drugs.
