Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report
Doctors have removed a 12-inch plastic pipe from a young woman’s digestive tract after she came in claiming she had swallowed a drinking straw.
The female patient named only as Ms Lu, 22, initially told doctors at the Third Affiliated Hospital of South Medical University in Guangzhou, capital of South China’s Guangdong Province, that she had accidentally swallowed the straw while drinking milk tea.
Scans, however, showed the lengthy plastic tube measuring 30 centimetres (12 inches) in length and 1.9 centimetres (0.75 inches) thick lodged in her oesophagus and stomach.
Gastroenterologist Zhang Ting said: “She came to the outpatient clinic on 3rd December and said she had accidentally swallowed a straw when drinking milk tea.
“She wanted our help getting it out, but we discovered that it was far deeper than we had anticipated.
“A CT of her esophagus showed a large foreign body inside – about 1.9 inches think and 30 centimetres long. It was obviously not a straw.”
Ms Lu underwent an endoscopy the following day, with doctor Yue Hui removing the tube from her oesophagus, out through the female patient’s mouth.
Doctor Yue said Ms Lu suffered from stomach ulcers as a result of the pipe, but the organ was luckily not punctured by the plastic tube.
She is expected to make a full recovery.
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