Chinese man, 64, discovers toothbrush in his intestine – 52 years after swallowing it | World News

A 64-year-old man in eastern China was stunned to learn that a toothbrush had been lodged in his small intestine for over half a century, discovered only after he began experiencing a strange sensation in his stomach.
The man, identified only his surname Yang, is from Anhui province. He told doctors that he accidentally swallowed the toothbrush when he was 12 years old but was too afraid to tell his parents. Believing the brush would dissolve naturally, he never sought medical help and had felt no serious discomfort until recently.
Doctors at the local hospital conducted an examination and were shocked to find the 17-centimeter object still intact and stuck in a section of Yang’s small intestine. Surgeons removed it through an 80-minute endoscopic procedure. According to hospital staff, it was one of the longest foreign objects extracted from a patient’s digestive system in the past three years.
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“It’s a miracle he didn’t feel anything for five decades,” one medical staff member said.
Dr Zhou, one of the attending physicians, noted that under normal conditions, such an object could rotate, press, or puncture the intestinal walls—posing serious risks, including potentially fatal internal injuries. Yang had been unusually lucky since the toothbrush had remained lodged in a bend of the intestine and hadn’t moved much over the years.
Cases like Yang’s are rare but not unheard of. In a similar incident last year, doctors in Sichuan province removed a 15-centimeter tube of super glue from a woman who had accidentally swallowed it and assumed her body would digest it naturally.
Doctors now emphasise the importance of regular medical check-ups, especially for those with unexplained symptoms. “Foreign objects in the digestive tract can be dangerous,” Dr Zhou warned. “Don’t assume the body will take care of it on its own.”