Toothbrush in intestine: Rare surgery helps doctors remove item after 52 years; man says accidentally swallowed it at 12

A 64-year-old man in China was shocked to discover that a toothbrush had been stuck in his intestines for 52 years. The man said he accidentally swallowed it when he was 12 years old but was too scared to tell his parents and assumed it would dissolve on its own, as reported by South China Morning Post .

For decades, he felt no symptoms, but recently he felt a strange sensation in his stomach that led him to seek medical help. Doctors found the 17 cm toothbrush lodged in his small intestine and removed it safely through endoscopic surgery that lasted 80 minutes.

The doctors noted that he was lucky as it hadn’t caused any serious damage over the decades. In the past three years, this was the longest surgery performed.

Doctor Zhou explained that a toothbrush inside the stomach could puncture the inner tissue causing serious internal damage. It can further lead to intestinal perforation which can be fatal.

Yang was fortunate that the brush was lodged in a crook of the intestine and had barely moved for decades, he added.

This unusual case has shocked netizens. One user exclaimed, “How lucky is he to survive with a toothbrush in his body for five decades? How could he think it would dissolve by itself? How did he manage to swallow that toothbrush?”

Another person said “It is a miracle that he did not even feel a thing for five decades.”

Last year, doctors in southwestern China’s Sichuan province helped a woman in removing a super glue tube that was 15cm long and 2.5cm wide.

She said she accidentally swallowed it and thought her body’s digestive system would deal with it naturally.

Doctors advised to get a regular body check up done to avoid such problems.