Bulimic Woman Swallows Butter Knife

Faline · #1 ● 08-03-2012, 10:05 AM

A bulimic woman who stuck a butter knife down her throat to prove she no longer had a gag reflex ended up swallowing it after she started laughing.

The 30-year-old Atlanta woman was showing off to friends when the item of cutlery became firmly lodged in her oesophagus - shown here in these staggering X-rays.

Vomiting blood and complaining of chest pain, she was rushed to Emory University School of Medicine.

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Doctors removed the knife through an endoscopy, and said the patient did not suffer any further damage to her throat or stomach.
But they did reveal that the woman, who has not yet been named, had swallowed a knife four years earlier. That time, they added, she did need surgery to retreive it.

The New England Journal of Medicine published the shocking images on its website. Dr Aida Venado and Dr Sarah Prebil said the woman was later transferred to a psychiatric unit.

They said in their report: 'She inserted the knife into the posterior oropharynx to demonstrate to her companions that she no longer had a gag reflex.

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'When she unexpectedly laughed, the knife migrated into her esophagus, causing chest discomfort and hematemesis.
'Anteroposterior chest and abdominal radiographs revealed a knife within the distal esophagus and proximal stomach, without evidence of pneumothorax, pneumomediastinum, or pneumoperitoneum.
'A rigid esophagogastroduodenoscopy was performed to remove the knife. The esophagus and stomach otherwise appeared grossly normal.
'A swallowing study showed no extravasation of contrast material from the upper gastrointestinal tract, and the patient subsequently resumed eating without complications.'