An 85-year-old male arrived in the emergency room of the Nahariya Hospital and explained that he swallowed a toothbrush as he was cleaning food particles from his teeth.

Dr. Ronit Bar-Chaim, a member of the surgical staff, treated the elderly man in the emergency room. She ordered an immediate CT to determine if the foreign body was indeed inside the man as he claimed.

After it was established that he did indeed swallow a tooth brush, he was taken to an operating room where Dr. Ohad Ronen and Dr. Ili Louis of the ENT department waited for him and they succeeded in removing the foreign body by performing a minor procedure, explaining this was done “without compromising the overall condition of the elderly patient”, who was soon thereafter released to his home.

Dr. Ronen told the media “We deal with hundreds of similar cases annually, of people ingesting foreign bodies into their body or even items getting stuck in their noses or throat. This is most common among infants, children and the elderly. This was indeed a rarity and I am pleased that we were able to extricate it quickly and without complications to permit him a quick return to his regular routine without the need for hospitalization or prolonged care”.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)