Weirdest/most difficult thing swallowed by a patient

Nurses General Nursing

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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.)

Haha, we had that recently too but the person swallowed several broken off pieces of the razor, not just the metal blades. Doc said they would just pass through. Couple of us suggested an MRI for a quick extraction.

Some of the things that my patients have eaten include:

underwear;

thumb tacks;

cell phones;

toys;

nails;

string/rope;

socks;

clothes;

poo;

spoons;

garbage;

etc.

Oh, I'm also a Certified Veterinary Technician. Some of our worse foreign bodies have been in ferrets and in large hook bill birds (parrots)

Fuzzy

Specializes in Emergency/Cath Lab.

To think the people that come to see us just swallow it with their butt usually

To think the people that come to see us just swallow it with their butt usually

Hahhahahahahhahahahahhahaha!!!

A pair of underwear boxers.

Psych ward. Saw it happen, couldn't stop it.

Specializes in Telemetry.

Also from another AN thread:

A guy who had stomach pain, upon xray we saw 12 oddly shaped things in abd. He then told us he liked to swallow barbie heads cause the hair felt good on the way out and he had obstructed. I swear some people have just lost their minds!

Also from another AN thread:

A guy who had stomach pain, upon xray we saw 12 oddly shaped things in abd. He then told us he liked to swallow barbie heads cause the hair felt good on the way out and he had obstructed. I swear some people have just lost their minds!

I'm pretty sure that's a Grey's Anatomy episode. No joke.

Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.

Had a guy brought into the ER by police at 0'stupid thirty one night who had bitten off, and swallowed BOTH an ear, and a finger of the guy he was fighting. The finger showed up really well on the KUB. We keep a picture of it to show nursing and medical students :)

Had a guy brought into the ER by police at 0'stupid thirty one night who had bitten off, and swallowed BOTH an ear, and a finger of the guy he was fighting. The finger showed up really well on the KUB. We keep a picture of it to show nursing and medical students :)

That might be the new winner.

I'm pretty sure that's a Grey's Anatomy episode. No joke.

It was also on strange tales from the ER.

Specializes in Operating room..

How bout weirdest thing up a rectum? I'm an OR nurse and have taken out a large can of body spray and a remote control from a guys rectum before.

Specializes in Telemetry.
How bout weirdest thing up a rectum? I'm an OR nurse and have taken out a large can of body spray and a remote control from a guys rectum before.

Not an OR nurse so no good stories, but I gotta say that if what many of these patients said regarding how stuff got "there" are truthful (ha) the shower is a super dangerous place where you can easily fall "onto" all sorts of interesting things....

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