10 Strange Things Surgeons Found Inside Patients’ Stomachs
Medical professionals often face unexpected moments, but few can match the surprise of finding foreign objects inside a patient’s body. These cases include everything from household items to live creatures, and the outcomes vary widely. Each of them required careful decision-making, fast action, or a deeper look into the patient’s history.
Spongebob Pendant
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Doctors reviewing a toddler’s X-ray didn’t expect to see SpongeBob’s face staring back. It turned out to be a small pendant from his sister’s jewelry. Though the pendant rested in his throat, the child showed no distress. Using a camera and small forceps, the medical team safely extracted it.
Felt-Tip Pen
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The pen was removed using an endoscopic camera and retrieval tools, which allowed careful guidance out of the stomach without open surgery. Years earlier, she had swallowed the pen while checking a spot on her tonsils, but scans failed to show it. The object then remained in her stomach for 25 years without clear symptoms.
Button Battery
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A button battery can begin to burn tissue within two hours of swallowing. In one case, a 2-year-old came in with vomiting and fever. Testing revealed the battery lodged in his esophagus. Its double-ring shape distinguished it from a coin. Doctors took it out endoscopically and treated minor burns.
Magnets
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Ingesting multiple magnets can be more dangerous than swallowing just one, as shown when a 3-year-old boy accidentally swallowed several strong magnetic beads. Doctors first attempted removal using a scope, but couldn’t reach them. Two days later, the magnets had connected through two separate parts of his intestine and were compressing and tearing the bowel walls.
Fishbone
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Not all abdominal pain begins in the gut. An older patient treated for chest pain showed heart attack symptoms, but it was later found that something else was wrong. A CT scan revealed that a six-centimeter fishbone had punctured his stomach and entered the liver, which had formed an abscess.
Cell Phone
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After reporting nausea and vomiting, a prisoner admitted to ingesting a full-size cell phone. The device measured over six centimeters, which is too large to pass through the digestive tract on its own. Professionals attempted retrieval with an endoscope but couldn’t position the tool properly. They eventually performed open surgery and removed the phone through an abdominal incision.
Hairball
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It was unusual to remove a 10-pound hairball from the stomach of an 18-year-old patient who had a known history of hair-chewing, but a couple of experts managed to succeed. Over several months, the hair collected into a solid mass. She arrived at the hospital after losing weight and suffering from persistent abdominal pain.
Wooden Chopstick
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A man once claimed he’d ingested a wooden chopstick. Since his X-ray appeared normal, his doctor dismissed it. Nine months later, he returned in severe pain, and the entire chopstick was lodged in his small intestine. It had pierced the bowel wall and caused internal damage that required emergency surgery.
Sewing Needle
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A young woman swallowed a sewing needle she’d been holding in her mouth. At first, surgeons tracked its progress through her body with routine imaging. On day 10, they noticed that it had migrated from her intestines up into her lung cavity. Her chest had to be opened up to retrieve it through her ribs.
Water-Expanding Toy
Credit: Youtube
An 8-month-old girl began vomiting bile and showed signs of painful constipation, which prompted urgent evaluation at the hospital. Results displayed a growing blockage inside her intestines that required an urgent procedure to resolve. The cause turned out to be a Water Balz toy, small when dry but designed to expand in liquid.