Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor:  Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report 

Video credit: AsiaWire

This is the moment a corroded lighter is found in the stomach of a young man who his doctor says “could have exploded” after all the lighter fluid leaked into his guts and he started “belching chemicals”.

Doctor Liu Xi, with the Fifth People’s Hospital of Shenyang in China’s north-eastern province of Liaoning, said the 25-year-old patient only sought medical attention some four days after he had eaten the lighter during a drunken night out with friends.

He arrived complaining of severe stomach pains on 22nd November and admitted to having swallowed the lighter which corroded and later leaked fuel inside him.

Mr Liu said: “I received a call from our outpatient clinic saying a young man had swallowed a lighter during a drunken night out with his friends.

“He didn’t bother having it removed, then he went drinking again, but this time he started vomiting. He felt something stuck inside him, so he came to the hospital.

“When I met him, he looked to be in a lot of pain. He said his stomach hurt a lot.

“I found the yellow lighter in his stomach using an endoscope.

“One end of the lighter was broken, and his stomach’s membrane was rotting. Serious damage was caused to the membrane by the leaking lighter fluid.

“It had been inside his stomach for three to four days. It was being corroded by his stomach acid.

“He kept feeling sick, and there was a very strong smell as he belched chemicals.”

Doctor Liu said he eventually managed to remove the lighter using a medical instrument called a snare loop.

He added: “I tried using a pair of forceps, but I couldn’t grab hold of the lighter. In the end, I used a snare loop.

“The patient did not cooperate either. He kept feeling sick and burping.

“Don’t swallow these things, especially as a bet with friends.

“He could have exploded had he come in contact with a fire source.

“He would’ve died.”

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