- The child, from Nepal, waited four hours before seeking medical help
- It is unclear why he took the pencil or if he has ever done it before
A boy who accidentally swallowed a four-inch pencil miraculously passed it painlessly less than 24 hours later.
Doctors shared details of the bizarre incident in a medical journal and said the 7-year-old experienced no adverse side effects.
The unidentified boy from Nepal waited four hours before seeking medical help.
But it’s unclear why he took the pencil in the first place or if he’s ever done it before.
Medics from Kathmandu Medical College and Teaching Hospital said they believe this is the first of its kind.
Doctors shared details of the bizarre incident in a medical journal and said the 7-year-old experienced no adverse side effects. The unidentified boy from Nepal waited four hours before seeking medical help. X-ray scans of the boy’s chest and abdomen showed that the pencil was lodged in his stomach
X-ray scans of the boy’s chest and abdomen showed that the pencil was lodged in his stomach.
But doctors noted that his bladder habits were “normal” and that he was “active and playful” throughout the ordeal.
The boy was kept under observation for eight hours, was advised to drink plenty of fluids and was only allowed to eat a banana.
A second scan then showed that the pencil was near his ileocecal junction, a muscular valve that separates the small intestine and colon.
Eight hours later he was scheduled for another X-ray, but while he waited, his mother suddenly revealed that the boy had passed the pencil “as one long piece.”
Medics confirmed this was the case and a third scan found no traces of the object in his gastrointestinal tract.
The boy was discharged the next day and did not require a follow-up appointment.
The boy was kept under observation for eight hours, was advised to drink plenty of fluids and was only allowed to eat a banana. A second scan then showed that the pencil was near his ileocecal junction, a muscular valve that separates the small intestine and colon.
Writing in the diary, Radiological case reportsAccording to doctors, ingestion of “foreign bodies” was common among children from six months to six years old.
About 80 to 90 percent of cases of “foreign bodies in the gastrointestinal tract” resolve involuntarily without the need for interventions.
However, it can be “very difficult” for a long and sharp foreign body to pass naturally because of four major constrictions in the abdomen, she added.
A toothbrush, for example, “has never been reported to emerge spontaneously from the gastrointestinal tract and only once has it reached the colon with multiple injuries,” they said.
Wooden foreign bodies often cannot be identified with an X-ray due to their radiolucency.
But in this case, scans were able to pick up the inner graphite layer of the pencil.