Man spends 52 years with toothbrush he swallowed as a kid stuck in intestine

Doctors in China were shocked to find a toothbrush in the intestine of a 64-year-old man who had swallowed it when he was just 12. It stayed there for 52 years without causing any health issues. However, Yang finally felt some discomfort in the stomach and went to the doctor. They carried out multiple tests and discovered a 17cm toothbrush. Yang told them that he had swallowed it at the age of 12. But he didn't tell his parents because he got scared. Yang assumed it would dissolve on its own. He lived this way for 52 years and had forgotten about it.

The doctors noticed that the toothbrush was stuck in his small intestine. They performed an endoscopic surgery and removed it after an 80-minute procedure. The hospital said that it was the longest equipment it had taken out of the human body in the past three years. What's surprising is that the toothbrush remained lodged in one section of the intestines all these years. This is why Yang did not face any health issues.

A doctor told SCMP that a toothbrush could rotate, press, and puncture the inner tissue of the intestines. It could cause intestinal perforation and lead to death. However, thankfully, for Yang, it remained lodged in a crook of the intestine and barely moved for decades. This helped him avoid any trouble for 52 years.

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Social media reacts to toothbrush in intestine

Yang's story has shocked people who can't help but wonder how lucky he is. People are recalling those times they accidentally swallowed things as kids, triggering fear. A user wrote, "It is a miracle that he did not even feel a thing for five decades." Another wondered, "How could he possibly think that the toothbrush will dissolve on its own? adding, "How did he manage to swallow that toothbrush?”

Another person added that as a child, he thought he would die when he swallowed a watermelon seed. This is not the first time news of a human swallowing strange things has been reported. In 2024, an Indian man swallowed a bunch of keys, two nail cutters and a knife because his family did not let him play the online game Battlegrounds Mobile India. The items were removed from his stomach in a one and a half hours operation.

Last year, a massive hairball, about the size of a cricket ball, was removed from the stomach of an 8-year-old girl in Bengaluru. The hospital said on Wednesday. It was a rare case of trichophagia -- the compulsive habit of eating hair, also known as the Rapunzel syndrome.