People swallow nails, pins, coins, lighters, etc. Surgeons will occasionally encounter some cases of weirdos who do these intentionally too. Yet swallowing a toothbrush and living for 20 years is a shock for all of them.
Recently a hospital in China took out the toothbrush that had been in the stomach for more than 20 years from Mr. Li, 51 years old. Now that the toothbrush has been “drilled” into the bile duct, the next step is to straighten the liver. If it wasn’t taken out, he could have died.
He swallowed the toothbrush in prison, 20 years ago. Mr. Li was dumbstruck seeing the toothbrush lurking around even after 20 years in his body when it was shown by CT Scan. Twenty years ago Mr. Li was imprisoned for drug use. He was tested for AIDS too for the same reason. Those bad days made him swallow a toothbrush as a way to kill himself. But after swallowing surprisingly he didn’t feel any uneasiness. Later he was released and proven healthy or HIV negative. He is now married and is the father of two lovely kids.
By then he believed his life is going to be better. But by 2014 he started feeling pain in his upper abdomen. He visited many hospitals and they concluded it as high in Transaminase(An enzyme that catalyzes a particular transamination reaction) and inflammation in the gallbladder. As the diagnosis was wrong the drugs didn’t work either.
When doctors asked him why he didn’t tell him he had swallowed it before, he said in total wonder that he thought it has gone out by bowel movement already. Or why didn’t he feel any pain for last 20 years.
As the toothbrush has reached his bile duct and is about to enter it uncomfortably. This triggered the lower abdominal pain and fever. He could even have died with Septic Shock.
