19 year old girl hospitalized after swallowing tongue piercing

News from the Department of Gastroenterology Emergency, 108 Military Central Hospital, last week doctors received and treated many patients with foreign objects stuck in their stomachs while eating.

A typical case is that of a 19-year-old girl who was eating when suddenly her tongue ring fell out with the food she swallowed into her stomach. The doctor had to spend nearly two hours endoscopy to remove the foreign object. The patient was admitted to the Emergency Department of Gastroenterology, 108 Military Central Hospital, two hours after swallowing the tongue ring. An abdominal CT scan showed a 2 cm metal foreign object in the patient's stomach, suspected of penetrating the stomach wall.

The tongue ring was removed from the stomach of a 19-year-old girl by endoscopy. (Photo: BVCC).

According to Dr. Ngo Thi Hoai, Deputy Head of the Department of Gastroenterology Emergency, the foreign object, when moving, can cause a perforation in the digestive tract, so the doctors decided to perform an emergency endoscopy to remove the foreign object even though the patient had just eaten two hours ago and the food had not yet been digested.

After about 90 minutes of pumping water into the stomach and sucking out the food, the doctor was finally able to remove the foreign object.

Case 2 is a 76-year-old man who, while eating chicken, swallowed a piece of bone, causing a feeling of choking and severe pain behind the sternum. His family immediately admitted him to the hospital. The doctor decided to perform an emergency gastroscopy, and found a foreign object, a chicken bone, stuck horizontally in the esophagus. At this location, when the bone is pulled out, it is very easy to perforate the esophagus, penetrate large blood vessels near the heart, or fall into the airway. After 35 minutes of alternating the method of grasping, the piece of bone was removed without causing any damage to the patient.

Dr. Hoai said that choking accidents on foreign objects in the digestive tract can occur when eating and talking at the same time, such as chicken bones or fish bones; or sometimes when removing and installing dentures for the elderly or tongue rings for young people. Sometimes, they are caused by swallowing things like coins, toothbrushes, safety pins, etc.

Patients should go to a medical facility as soon as possible to remove the foreign object. If not removed promptly, the foreign object can puncture the digestive tract, and in more serious cases, can cause infection, mediastinal or abdominal abscess, peritonitis, and severe complications that can be life-threatening.

When eating, people should chew thoroughly, eat slowly, and speak only after eating. At the same time, tongue piercings should not be worn because of aesthetics and safety. When swallowing a foreign object, absolutely do not handle it at home but go to a medical facility immediately.

Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/nuot-phai-khuyen-luoi-thieu-nu-19-tuoi-nhap-vien-192250303110317447.htm