This woman swallowed a felt-tip pen in 1986. Back then, she told the doctor and her husband what happened, but they didn’t believe her. Now, 25 years later, she went to another doctor and they found the pen intact inside her stomach.
In fact, the pen was still working after they surgically extracted it, using a “combined endoscopic and ear, nose and throat procedure under general anaesthetic.”
The doctors detected the pen following an MRI examination prompted by another stomach illness. The MRI clearly showed the writing utensil, perfectly preserved in her body. Apparently, plastic pens don’t care about being submerged in acid for two and a half decades.
But how the hell did she swallowed the pen, you ask? According to her, she was poking her tonsils it near the stairs when she fell, swallowing it entirely. Why would you do this, I don’t know. And how can you swallow a pen unless you are a sword swallower or Linda Lovelace, anyway? I would have died right there.
What is more worrying is that, back then, the doctor that examined her x-rays didn’t see any objects at all. The pen was perfectly hidden. According to the doctor who published the case in the British Medical Journal Case Reports, “his case highlights that plain abdominal x-rays may not identify ingested plastic objects and occasionally it may be worth believing the patient’s account however unlikely it may be.”
It also highlights how stupid people can be. [BMJ via The Body Odd]
TSH
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 11:54 AMAnybody else reckon Weyland-Yutani should start making armour and helmets out of whatever that pen was made of?
Just This Guy ...
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 2:04 PMPlastic
Ozoneocean
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 1:36 PMThis right here is the cause of so much suffering and stupid diagnosis: “and occasionally it may be worth believing the patient’s account”
Occasionally?
With someone like that, you may as well send people to a vet.
jack
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 4:31 PMWell most people are animals, so it’s probably the right move.
Virus__
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 5:09 PMWorked in The Walking Dead Season 2, the Doctor is a vet :P
alien
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 1:38 PMa razor blade can be dissolved by stomach acids after days/weeks(not sure which), how the hell does a pen survive?
Just This Guy ...
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 2:03 PMBattery (sulfuric) acid is sold in plastic bottles.
Stomach acid is mainly Hydrochloric, but still essentially the same.
Lots of plastics are not harmed by acid.
Metals almost always are.
Mr Odd
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 4:20 PMAnd that is why plastic is bad for wild life and natural in general, it takes hundreds to thousands years to break down.
Just This Guy ...
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 5:17 PMzactly. And what are all these cheap gadgets we prize so highly made of?
Stomach-proof materials, that’s what.
Stoopid hoomins!
Dang
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 6:23 PMWho is Linda Lovelace?
*Googles*
Oh.
MD
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 1:23 AMOk Plastic (really gotta specify which plastic, you know that generic stuff isn’t al the same, Probably PVC) is stomach Proof, so how much of the general rubbish is exposed to Gastric acid when it is dumped.
Many of the plastics are not UV stable (deliberately in many cases, and by ‘nature’ in others), so they break down “much faster” under UV light… then they add to the pacific garbage patch, where they are in the middle of nowhere with lots of other small pieces of plastic waiting for ages to break down…. There is nothing else for them to do out there…. Also, the garbage patch is conveniently away from all land masses, and fish spawning grounds, to maybe it really doesn’t do a lot of harm, except for reflecting back loads of solar radiation (helping to reverse global change)
Contrary to pessimistic belief most of the small pieces of plastic don’t really cause so much harm (this lady had a pen in her guts for 25 years)… so in future maybe we should shred all of our plastic junk, so that when it gets into the ocean, it doesn’t suffocate turtles and dolphins… That way they can swallow it, and it won’t cause so much harm.. (also make sure the milk bottle rings aren’t in tact or they make nasty necklaces for lots of animals…)
Of course a better use for non-recycled plastic is to burn it in high temperature incinerators, and get energy from it… as has been done in Germany for many years. Not swallow it…
PS, read with a sense of ‘sad humour’, and take lightly (My science is usually good, my views often contrarian)
DeeDub76
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 7:46 AMLOL @ TSH’s comment!!!