Constipation patient gulps down toothbrush, AIIMS docs take it out
New Delhi: An advice of a quack left a Delhi-based constipation patient straight at emergency wards of All Indian Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS). The patient accidently swallowed the toothbrush after the quack suggested him to clean throat using toothbrush which can also give him subsequent relief from constipation. The patient named, Abid, who landed at AIIMS on December 9 last year, pushed around 12 cm-long toothbrush down his throat to practise the advise of the quack as he was suffering from a prolonged illness of constipation. But his gag reflex made his accidentally swallow the toothbrush in the course at his home in Delhi.
"The patient was too embarrassed to say anything and went to bed hoping the toothbrush would work its way through his digestive system," source informed.
But he woke up in agony and ended up confessing what he had done, to his family members, who immediately drove him to the nearby hospital, but the doctors there examined him and decided he needed specialist help. They referred him to the AIIMS. "The man pushed around 12 cm long toothbrush down his throat to make himself very sick, the doctors said.
He was later admitted to emergency ward of the AIIMS and later, under seen by a gastroenterologist who managed to locate and remove the toothbrush by means of an upper endoscopy–a thin, flexible tube with a camera on the tip–without the need for surgery. "We were surprised to find the toothbrush inside the intestine and if delayed it could have burst the intestine," they said.
"The about 12 cm long object had partially stuck inside the critical place of the intestine. "With the help of the anaesthesia team, we completed the endoscopy of the patient. None of the organs were damaged during the intervention," the doctors added.
Moreover, doctors stated that earlier in October 2018 AIIMS emergency ward had witnessed the same incident, in which a patient had swollen the toothbrush accidentally. Interestingly, the patient was also performing the practice to clean the throat to get rid of constipation over an advise from another quack.
