Friday, April 3, 2009

memo to self: don't use scissors as a toothpick

It was a monumental hand slip-- an accident that challenges the imagination. In fact, a mishap of this sort takes a weird sort of talent.

Recently, 27-year-old Lin Kong of Putian, China had supper at a friend's house. After eating, he realized that he had some food stuck between his teeth.

Unfortunately, Lin had no toothpick and his fingers just wouldn't do. So naturally (?), Lin selected the next-best thing to a toothpick: a pair of 4-inch nail scissors.

While trying to extract the food particle with the scissors, one of Lin's friends made him laugh. According to Lin, when he laughed, he let go of the scissors and they dropped to the back of his mouth and down his throat. When he tried to cough them out, they only went down further.

Lin immediately went to the hospital. His surgeon, Chen Wei, said, “When he came in, his face was twisted, pale, and [he was] sweating. The patient was having difficulty swallowing,”

The doctors had x-rays taken (see photo). They decided that a general anesthesia might cause the throat to relax and cause the scissors to drop down further. Finally, after a half-hour under a local anesthetic, the scissors were free.

Lin is fortunate to have only a little throat damage.

Next time he will learn what we all know: use bigger scissors to clean your teeth.

http://bit.ly/tTav6
Thanks to Toivoa ja Elämän for sending me the story link.

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