- The boy, originally from Nepal, waited four hours before seeking medical attention.
- It is unclear why he ingested the pencil or if he had ever done so before.
A boy who accidentally swallowed a 10cm pencil miraculously passed it pain-free less than 24 hours later.
Sharing details of the strange incident in a medical journal, doctors told how the 7-year-old boy suffered no harmful side effects.
The unidentified boy from Nepal waited 4 hours before seeking medical attention.
But it’s unclear why he ingested the pencil in the first place or if he had ever done so before.
Doctors at Kathmandu Medical College and University Hospital said they believe the case is the first of its kind.
Sharing details of the strange incident in a medical journal, doctors told how the 7-year-old boy suffered no harmful side effects. The unidentified boy from Nepal waited 4 hours before seeking medical attention. X-rays of the boy’s chest and abdomen revealed that the pencil was lodged in his stomach.
X-rays of the boy’s chest and abdomen revealed that the pencil was lodged in his stomach.
But doctors noted that his urinary habits were “normal” and that he was “active and playful” throughout the ordeal.
The boy was under observation for eight hours, advised to drink plenty of fluids and only allowed to eat one banana.
Then a second scan showed that the pencil was near its ileocecal junction, a muscular valve that separates the small intestine and large intestine.
He was scheduled to have another x-ray eight hours later, but while waiting, his mother suddenly revealed that the boy had passed the pencil “as one long piece.”
Doctors confirmed this to be the case and a third scan found no traces of the object in his gastrointestinal tract.
The child was discharged the next day and did not require a follow-up appointment.
The boy was under observation for eight hours, advised to drink plenty of fluids and only allowed to eat one banana. Then a second scan showed that the pencil was near its ileocecal junction, a muscular valve that separates the small intestine and large intestine.
Writing in the diary, Radiology Case ReportsDoctors said ingestion of “foreign bodies” was common among children aged six months to six years.
About 80 to 90 percent of cases of “gastrointestinal foreign bodies” disappear involuntarily without the need for intervention.
However, it can be “very difficult” for a long, sharp foreign body to pass naturally due to four major narrowings in the abdomen, they added.
For example, “a toothbrush has never been reported to spontaneously exit the gastrointestinal tract and only once reached the colon with multiple lesions,” they said.
Wooden foreign bodies often cannot be identified by X-ray due to their radiolucency.
But in this case, the scans were able to detect the pencil’s inner graphite layer.