Weirdest/most difficult thing swallowed by a patient

[ixchel]

We're talking about pica in another thread and its left me wondering - what is the weirdest or most impossible thing swallowed by a patient that you have cared for?

(No urban legends, if you don't mind. Hoping for real stories.)

[rheath22]

Not really swallowed butttt..... At my ALF one of our resident put a flower from one of the inside plants in her "front bottom".

I thought it was a blood clot at first

[AmyRN303, BSN, RN]

The hospital where I delivered my kids used to have a few shadow boxes in the pedi gastroenterology waiting area....full of things removed from children's stomachs. Little green army guys, a spoon, even the requisite quarter or two. I'm sure there were more odd things but I can't remember. One endoscopy suite in which I shadowed keeps photos of odd objects removed from stomachs....lots and lots of sewing needles, as I recall.

[BSNbeauty, BSN, RN]

Urine from urinal.

[OrganizedChaos, LVN]

Urine from urinal.

Gross!!!! *barf*

[cracklingkraken, ASN, RN]

The hospital where I delivered my kids used to have a few shadow boxes in the pedi gastroenterology waiting area....full of things removed from children's stomachs. Little green army guys, a spoon, even the requisite quarter or two. I'm sure there were more odd things but I can't remember. One endoscopy suite in which I shadowed keeps photos of odd objects removed from stomachs....lots and lots of sewing needles, as I recall.

Did peforations often occur?

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

12 year old using Bucky Balls to make a fake lip piercing. Ended up swallowing two of them. Was extremely lucky not to end up needing a bowel resection because they had connected between loops of bowel- GI doc was able to get them separated and retrieved without injury.

Have a repeat customer who has a thing for fish hooks. We're not sure how he keeps getting ahold of more because he's in a group home and they know not to let him have anything like that.

[KatieMI, BSN, MSN, RN]

A genuine sapphire, and a big one.

LOL was getting home care and her day aide was wearing a pendant with the stone in it. The stone fell out, the LOL found it on her daybed and thought it was a candy or something. It was a princess-cut and the sharp back end got embedded somewhere in small bowel, caused peritonitis with all the sequela and complications. I know that the stone wad found during surgery but no idea what they did with it... returned to the lawful owner, hopefully.

One of the worst things, AFAIK, are batteries (because of acid) and small magnetic toys (cause bowel perforation).

[Farawyn]

Urine from urinal.

This is a thing. People swear it cures all ills.

Group home:

cigarette butts

One lit that burned the guy's mouth

Q tips

Wrappers

Corn starch

A condom

A pom Pom off a slipper

A bag of apples, core and all, that we had just picked at an orchard... In about 5 minutes!

Soap

Candles

Dental wax

Wet used toilet paper

Used tampon

[Pangea Reunited, ASN, RN]

Razor blades ...on purpose. The patient came to us after leaving another hospital AMA because the staff were "rude".

[Awesomocity0]

GI nurse here. Foreign body removals for

Whole chicken bones

Crayons

Combs

Go pro camera (because who needs an egd when you can do one yourself?)

Pill bottle (no pills inside; just was hoping for a fix when she ran out)

Dog tags

Toddler shoe

Stuffed hamster dog toy

Car shift knob

Bottle of cinnamon (teenagers are stupid)

Water gun

Change purse

Tampon (used)

I'm sure there are some I'm forgetting, but... Good enough.

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

True story: Guy admitted for upper GI bleed. Spent the whole night shift gagging and retching. Next morning he goes for an EGD and they pull a toothpick out of his stomach. When he woke up and they told him he said "Oh yeah- did I forget to mention I swallowed a toothpick last week?"