Girl swallows tongue ring while eating dinner

After swallowing a tongue ring during dinner, a 19-year-old girl had to go to the emergency room at Hospital 108 with the ring deep in her stomach.

90 minutes to remove tongue ring from stomach

According to doctors from the Department of Gastroenterology Emergency, 108 Military Central Hospital (Hospital 108), for the above female patient, abdominal CT images showed a 2 cm metal foreign object in the stomach, suspected of piercing the stomach wall.

Tongue ring in stomach mixed with food was removed by emergency endoscopy doctors

"If this foreign object is not removed, it could cause a perforation of the digestive tract when it moves. We decided to perform an emergency endoscopy to remove the foreign object even though the patient had just finished eating about 2 hours ago, and there was still a lot of food in the stomach. After about 90 minutes of pumping water in and sucking out the food, the doctors were able to remove the foreign object," a member of the on-duty team shared.

The girl said that while having dinner at home, she accidentally swallowed her tongue ring and had to quickly go to the hospital.

Dr. Ngo Thi Hoai, Deputy Head of the Department of Gastroenterology Emergency (Hospital 108), shared that to avoid choking on foreign objects, one should chew thoroughly and eat slowly. Tongue piercings should not be done because of aesthetics and safety. If you accidentally swallow a foreign object, you should absolutely not handle it yourself but go to a medical facility immediately.

Many types of foreign objects cause choking.

According to doctors, Hospital 108 has received many cases of foreign body choking. Recently, the hospital's on-duty team received a 76-year-old male patient who was brought to the hospital by his family due to choking on a chicken bone during a meal at home.

During an emergency gastroesophageal endoscopy, doctors discovered that the patient had a chicken bone stuck horizontally in the esophagus. At this location, pulling the bone out could easily perforate the esophagus, penetrate large blood vessels near the heart, or fall into the airway, so doctors had to carefully rotate the bone fragment and remove it, without causing injury to the patient.

Doctor Hoai said that foreign objects in the digestive tract can be encountered when eating and talking at the same time, such as chicken bones, fish bones, or sometimes foreign objects accidentally fall in when removing and installing dentures, such as dentures of the elderly, tongue rings of young people, or sometimes intentionally swallowed, such as coins, toothbrushes, safety pins, etc.

Regardless of the foreign object, the patient should go to a specialized medical facility as soon as possible to remove it. If not removed promptly, the foreign object can puncture the digestive tract, and more seriously, it can cause infection, mediastinal or intra-abdominal abscess, peritonitis, and life-threatening complications.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/cap-cuu-do-lo-nuot-chiec-khuyen-luoi-185250302104130388.htm