Odd foreign bodies removed from patients

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Reviewed

SermoOct 6 2010

Sermo (http://www.sermo.com), the world's largest online community for physicians, today announced its weekly hot topic. Of over 200 physician respondents to an online poll and discussion, 85% said they have removed odd foreign bodies from patients.

Physicians on Sermo discuss a wide range of issues from challenging clinical cases and pharmaceuticals to the lighter side of medicine, including these amusing stories of foreign body removal.

After an Urologist removed a crochet needle from a 23-year-old female's bladder, he asked his colleagues on Sermo, "What is the most unusual thing you have pulled out of a patient?"

An OBGYN once removed a "live fish from the vagina of a 34 y/o."

A pathologist recalled a time when a construction worker had fallen onto a piece of rebar. "He had turned himself into a human shish-kabob," he explained. "It entered through the pelvis, exited just supraclavicular. Amazingly, it didn't hit anything significant and he did fine."

An Emergency Medicine physician told the tale of removing a 12" vibrator from a patient. It was unique because the patient tried to remove the vibrator with the round end of a barbeque skewer. "The skewer became stuck on the vibrator and he arrived at the ER with the sharp end of the skewer protruding from his anus about 6"," the physician said. "How did he arrive? He rode a bicycle standing up and wearing a bathrobe."

A Pediatrician recounted a removal from his internship. A "2 year old presented to ED having bitten into a cactus." They "spent a long while extracting spines from tongue, and palate."

A General Surgeon dislodged a "mannequin's arm, which the patient had filed to allow for easier insertion into the rectum--too bad they'd removed the hand from it. It would have come in handy to hold onto to remove."

Other strange removals include: