Stomach aches can have many reasons: digestive disorders, viruses, poisoning, etc. More rarely, the cause comes from the ingestion of a foreign object. However, this is what doctors at the Wenzhou hospital in China experienced when they discovered… a thermometer in the stomach of a patient.
A thermometer like a sword of Damocles in the stomach
The 32-year-old himself didn’t know what was bothering him. But suffering too much for a few days, he decided to consult the emergency room. There, routine examinations begin, including a CT scan. But this reveals an unexpected cause: a mercury thermometer blocked in the man’s body, at the entrance to his small intestine. Its end was pressing against the intestinal wall, which was the cause of the pain felt.
The consultation changes tone: the object must be removed urgently, because even if it has been present for a long time, it can damage the organ at any time and create internal bleeding.
An object swallowed when he was 12 years old
But what was this intact thermometer doing in the intestine? Faced with the mishap, the man suddenly remembered an episode from his childhood: at the age of 12 he had accidentally swallowed the object, but had said nothing to his parents, for fear of being punished. Without symptoms since, he had filed and forgotten the matter. The thermometer had therefore been in his body for… 20 years, intact. Only the gradations had been erased.
“He was incredibly lucky. Fortunately, the thermometer did not break and there was no mercury leak”reacted an Internet user under the media.
Unusual object in the body: an accident, sometimes a disorder
Although this story may seem exceptional, it nevertheless recalls a reality well known to emergency services: the ingestion of foreign bodies is far from being an isolated case.
As Dr. Gérald Kierzek points out, this type of situation can sometimes reveal a deeper disorder, pica disease. : “It is a psychiatric eating disorder characterized by the repeated ingestion of inedible substances – metal, glass, earth, plastic, etc. – for at least one month, outside of any cultural or ritual context.”
Although it more often concerns children or vulnerable people, certain adults can also be affected, particularly in contexts of great insecurity or psychological distress. “It also happens that this behavior is used in prison or detention centers to cause hospitalization and temporarily escape the judicial system”he adds.
In the case of this Chinese man, however, nothing indicates a disorder of this type: the ingestion seems to have been accidental and isolated, occurring in childhood. But the episode perfectly illustrates the potential dangers of these situations.
Potentially fatal consequences
Swallowing an object, even a small one, is never trivial.
“The ingestion of sharp or large objects can cause perforation of the digestive tract, internal bleeding or intestinal obstruction, sometimes fatal”warns Dr. Kierzek.
The toxic risk must also be taken into account. Certain objects, such as batteries or heavy metals, can release substances dangerous to the body and cause serious damage to the liver, kidneys or nervous system. Here the mercury could in fact have caused serious damage if the thermometer had broken.
In emergency services, treatment is firstly based on the precise identification of the object and its location using medical imaging. “Surgical intervention is only indicated in the event of blockage, risk of perforation, hemorrhage or intoxication”specifies the specialist. In other cases, a less invasive approach may suffice: “Endoscopic extraction or spontaneous elimination can be considered under hospital supervision”.
An unusual story, therefore, but which reminds us of a simple rule: even forgotten for years, a foreign body can at any time become a vital emergency.