Medical Cases Related to Swallowing Inedible Things (Toothpick)

about 1 month ago

As children, our parents always watch our movements, to ensure we do not swallow things that not edible because it can be very harmful leading to operation at worse but still as children, there was a friend of mine who swallowed a dice. When he swallowed it, we were all scared and he didn't want us to tell his mom because she was going to be angry at him but the females amongst us were so scared that we spilled the bean immediately we saw his mom. I cannot imagine how hilarious I looked but I must say that telling his mom was the best thing I would have done at that age.

His mom was worried but as a typical Nigerian woman, I didn't know which was important in her order of priority, going to the class teacher to yell and create a scene that she didn't look after her child or taking the child to the hospital because she did the former. I could also say that I guess her decision was because her son was still standing with no cramp or pain.

His mom later took him to a road side pharmacist who advised her to observe it for a few days to see if he would pass it out from his stool. Long story short, on the third day he passed it out but I must say that he was lucky because the proper thing to do was to go to the hospital but what could I have done, I was just a child, and I didn't live with them.

Even when we are careful not to swallow things that are not edible, there are times when we still end up swallowing things and while my friend was lucky, some people aren't lucky and swallowing those inedible substances could land them in the hospital.

Reading through science journal "Successful diagnosis and treatment of ingested wooden toothpicks" where 2 cases were discussed, there was one case that caught my attention and that was case of a 33 year old person who after a series of abdominal pain after eating a late night drink. At the hospital, several scans were done, and it was a toothpick that had perforated his intestinal wall to reach his left liver lobe and the other end reaching his duodenum. At the end of the surgery when the patient had recovered, he agreed that he might have ingested when he was having a late night drink.

As I read further through the journal to the second case, it was one that had to do with a middle aged woman who suffered from a durative colic in left upper abdomen which had lasted for 4 days. In her hospital, a CT scan, showed an inflammation of the abdomen with presence of a wooden bamboo toothpick. The toothpick was then removed but aside from these cases, there are other cases that swallowing objects could lead to serious medical problems.

I was going through the British medical Journal where I came across an article titled "Liver Abscess caused by toothpick and treated by laparoscopic left hepatic resection: Case report and literature review". The patient was admitted into the hospital with gut pain, fever, nausea, vomiting, and low blood pressure. The patient had mistakenly swallowed a toothpick. The toothpick pierced through the patient's esophagus and created an abscess in the lobe of the liver.

Let me quickly explain abscess to you. It is the collection of pus as a result of the white blood cell being sent to attack infections. This leads to dead tissues creating pus leading to abscess. The infection led to systemic issues as a result of the bacteria infecting the rest of her body and leading to blood poisoning (sepsis in the blood) which could progress into septic shock. According to the article, the medical practitioners used Keyhole surgery method also known as Laparoscopy, or minimally invasive surgery to remove the toothpick from the body.

You see, when we talk about eating foreign inedible things, it is common in children like the first real life experience I shared about my friend as a child, and since the "do not ingest" label is not found in a lot of things, then there is a possibility that adults too might mistakenly ingest these things especially things that are accompanied with food such as toothpick, fish bone, or chicken bone.