Story By: Sibel Abdiu, Sub-Editor:Michael Leidig,Agency:Central European News

Picture Credit: CEN

A woman who accidentally swallowed her toothbrush was too embarrassed to tell anybody and had to be rushed to hospital the next day in agony.

The woman, named only as H.I.F. by local officials and who is aged 27, pushed the 15cm (6 ins) long toothbrush down her throat to make herself sick after she felt ill from eating food cooked on a barbecue.

But her gag reflex made her accidentally swallow the toothbrush in the incident at her home in the Milas district of south-western Turkey’s Mugla Province.

H.I.F., a sales consultant, was too embarrassed to say anything and went to bed hoping the toothbrush would work its way through her digestive system.

But she awoke the next morning in agony and ended up confessing what she had done to her husband, who immediately drove her to the nearby Bodrum State Hospital.

H.I.F. said: “I went to the toilet and tried to vomit with the help of the toothbrush. While I was trying to vomit, I swallowed the toothbrush. I was so shocked I couldn’t say a thing to anybody.”

Doctors examined her and decided she needed specialist help. They transferred her to the Mugla Sitki Kocman Univesity Training and Research Hospital in the city of Mugla.

She was seen by gastroenterologist Dr Burak Ozseker 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.

Dr Ozseker said: “She had swallowed the toothbrush accidentally. But she did not ask for medical help until the next day, about 15 to 16 hours later.

“The 15 cm long object had partially passed the stomach, it was almost half in the duodenum (the shortest part of the small intestine) which is a critical place.

“With the help of the anesthaesia team, we completed the endoscopy of the patient. None of the organs were damaged during the intervention. We are happy we released her from the hospital in a healthy condition.”