Weirdest/most difficult thing swallowed by a patient

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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.)

Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.
That's a whole new thread topic! My patients seemed to have fetishes with produce.

Like mine whose GF stuck a cucumber up his rear end. Yup. He needed open abdominal surgery bc it got crushed with attempts at manual extraction under conscious sedation.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

I've had a patient who ingested a toothpick and another with a chicken bone stuck in her throat. Both needed the OR.

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Gloves

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Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.

Did any of you watch America's Got Talent, the season that just ended? The guy who came in 2nd was a "Professional Regurgitator"....which I admit SOUNDS like it would be a really and truly disgusting act, but he had been doing it something ridiculous like 30 years. He could swallow coins which had a different # written on each one, and then bring up whichever number the judges called for (out of sequence), he could swallow a charm separately from an unfastened chain bracelet, and when he brought it back up, the charm was not only secured onto the chain, but the bracelet clasp was fastened.

He was one weird act, but a really, really interesting and nice person. He totally astonished everyone, and rightly so.

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No, but I should have watched it, since I'm in love with Howard Stern.:bag:

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Specializes in family practice and school nursing.

not really swallowed but I had a kid who was laughing and chewing on small pencil at the same time inhale the pencil..had to be surgically removed

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Specializes in School Nursing, Hospice,Med-Surg.

I had a patient that swallowed a long wooden spoon and a plastic door stop (together)

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Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
I had a patient that swallowed a long wooden spoon and a plastic door stop (together)

:eek:Why, oh why, oh why?

Interesting combo, though!:woot:

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Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.

I had a psych patient who swallowed pens, pins, and what seemed like anything he got his hands on. He did end up with surgery. I took care of him years ago. I had a recent patient swallow a razor blade. It was one from a pill splitter. They let her pass it. Just followed her for a couple weeks with xray.

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I have a patient that takes his medicine with vinegar. Don't know how his stomach or teeth handle it

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Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
I have a patient that takes his medicine with vinegar. Don't know how his stomach or teeth handle it

This post made me shudder........it takes my breath just to imagine it, and NOT in a good way! The taste buds would be the first things to shrivel up.......

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We used to have a patient that we called Pacman, because he ate everything. At one time our surgeon considered putting a zipper on his abdomen so we could just unzip him and pull stuff out. I think the weirdest thing he swallowed, other than all his neighbors panties off the laundry line, was all the Christmas ornaments off our units tree. We wondered what he was crunching on, then looked over at the tree ..... uh oh.

Cheers

Oh, my goodness... Laughed so hard I was crying! :roflmao:

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