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This story was in the Toronto National Post. It's on stange things people swallowed. This comes on the heels of a bizzare story of an Israli woman who tried to get a cockroach out of her throat with a fork and ended up swallowing both.

[quote]There was a young man who swallowed a compass
The whole world gagged when a surgeon in Israel revealed that a patient swallowed the fork she was using to dislodge a bug from her throat. Now, an Edmonton doctor shows Chris Zdeb his collection of objects retrieved from patients.

I spent a year working in A&E and saw many kids in that time who had allegedly swallowed things.  On the vast majority of occasion the X-ray either showed nothing at all or the "object" safely in the childs stomach or intestine.

On one occasion I was sitting in the triage room and a four year old was brought into me.  The story was that he had swallowed a two pence piece that he had been sucking on despite advice not too.  I sat there calmly explaining to the parents that in most cases the child is perfectly OK and the coin goes straight to the gut, I also told them that often the child has swallowed nothing at all despite what they have told mummy and daddy.  I informed the parents that their little boy had quite a high priority due to the minimal risk of him occluding his airway so that their wait would not be too long too see a doctor.  I told them to book in at reception and advised them to find a nurse if they were at all concerned whilst they were waiting.

The parents stood up to leave the triage room and the little boy remained sitting there.  I said something like "It's alright little man, you'll be fine" when I noticed he was turning a funny shade of pink.  He rapidly went through the spectrum to an absurd shade of blue which I failed to see with any clarity because by that time he was in my arms and I was doing the fastest run in history to the resus room, shouting for help the entire way.  It was the longest run in my life, and that kid was heavy.

They had to put a tracheostomy tube in through hius neck in resus and run the poor little bugger to theatre to get th coin out.  He went home about a week late with a scar in his throat and a story to tell his mates at play school.

I went outside for a fag.........

Will