Story By: John Feng, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report
These scans show a pensioner who accidentally swallowed his dentures and nearly choked to death as they became lodged in his throat for eight hours.
Zhu Benbiao, 75, was taken to the First Hospital of Fuzhou, capital of city Fujian Province in East China, after his family members noticed he was having trouble eating and breathing.
Scans showed one of his two dentures lodged at the bottom of his throat, leading medics to schedule an emergency surgery.
The row of false teeth is believed to have been swallowed while Mr Zhu was eating, but neither he nor his relatives noticed until he began experiencing breathing difficulties.
Doctor Chen Zeyu, the facility’s chief gastroenterologist, said: “An inspection with an endoscope revealed that the dentures were stuck sideways by his trachea and oesophagus.
“One end was in his oesophagus and the other in his windpipe, sticking out of his glottis.
“We cut open his windpipe, kept him breathing with the help of a tube, and then removed the dentures by pulling them from his glottis.
“It was hard, but we managed to get it out in the end.”
Doctor Chen said the false teeth had already been lodged in Mr Zhu’s throat for some eight hours and needed to be urgently removed to stop the pensioner from dying of asphyxiation.
The operation took a further four hours, and Mr Zhu is continuing his recovery at the facility.
The ViralTab page is created by and dedicated to professional, independent freelance journalists. It is a place for us to showcase our work. When our news is sold to our media partners, we will include the link here.
