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.)

[MereSanity]

Billiard ball. Surgeon just couldn't get a grip on it. Finally, he threaded a foley past the ball, inflated the bladder and nudged the ball out.

12-inch handle to a plunger. Again, so slick with poo that surgeon couldn't get a grip. Finally reached the far end and was able to grasp the grooves that thread into the rubber part of the plunger.

Yeah...the large can of body spray had no "lip" on it...took forever to get a grip on it.

[RNBillieBSN]

This is where that adage, "you can't fix stupid" comes in....

[RNBillieBSN]

I don't really have any stories of people swallowing, but I do have a few of "placing"items in other orifices...

In a LTC Facility...a little man used to put forks in his rectum...tines out. they finally began sending plastic ware;

In the ER...young girl comes in with caginal drainage, I go in with doc, he pulls out a folded $100 dollar bill and

begins waving it in her face, asking..."what the hell is this s**t?"; another young lady with a small stuffed animal

in her lady parts...she would not let us remove it. her mother stated she had had a miscarriage and been "doing things

like this since"...she was admitted to psych; then the druggy who came in with three bottles of drugs in her lady parts.

she said she kept them thee so no one would take them from her. when she wanted to take one, she would go to

the BR , take out a bottle, take the pill out and reinsert the bottle. YUCK!!! She was admitted to psych as well!

[azhiker96, BSN, RN]

I had a prisoner who swallows items when he wants to get a trip to the hospital. It's a nicer environment with good food and narcotics too. The time I had him he had torn up a phone charger and swallowed all the pieces. Then for good measure he pulled the buttons off his shirt and shoved them up his urethra.

Urology removed the the buttons easily enough but general surgery had to open him to fish out all the charger parts.

Had a different patient who had swallowed a handful of vitamins and supplements at one time.. They had all fused together and Would not pass thru his esophageal sphincter. A gen surgeon was able to scope it out. Discharge instructions included swallow pills one at a time.

[Oh'Ello, BSN, RN]

Eating disorder patient. Pulled her feeding tube and then ripped it into pieces and swallowed it. Don't ask me how, or why for that matter.

[No Stars In My Eyes]

Eating disorder patient. Pulled her feeding tube and then ripped it into pieces and swallowed it. Don't ask me how or why for that matter.[/quote']

But, by golly, she showed you real good! Maybe she just felt the need for a little fiber in her diet?