Doctors Remove Toothbrush From Man’s Stomach After Mistakenly Swallowing It While Brushing

A man has recently gone under the knife to have a toothbrush removed from his stomach after he mistakenly swallowed it while brushing his teeth.

The patient, name withheld, swallowed the toothbrush on September 15 and had to be quickly operated upon by doctors, reports Metro UK.

The report said a 9-centimeter-long toothbrush was removed from the stomach of the patient, a 39-year-old Indian, by a group of doctors at the Bakin Pertin General Hospital, India.

“The patient was taken to a private hospital in Pasighat – from there he was referred to our hospital,” Metro UK quoted Dr Bomni Tayeng, a senior surgeon, to have said.

“The ENT surgeon of our hospital investigated the patient and planned to conduct an esophagoscopy, while I checked the patient at around 6pm.

“The esophagoscopy procedure was conducted on September 16 morning, but the toothbrush couldn’t be found in the oesophagus – the muscular tube connecting the pharynx (throat) with the stomach. This meant that the toothbrush had entered into the stomach.

“As the toothbrush couldn’t be detected in the x-ray, I then decided to conduct an exploratory laparotomy process under general anaesthesia in the same sitting.

“The brush could be easily felt in the stomach and was removed through a small incision in the stomach. This procedure took only about 30 minutes.

“The very next day he started taking oral fluids, and had an uneventful recovery. He was discharged on September 21,” Tayeng said.