A 29-year-old Chinese man unknowingly lived with a 15cm coffee spoon inside his body for nearly six months after accidentally swallowing it while being intoxicated in Thailand.The man, identified as Yan, only discovered the foreign object when he visited a doctor in Shanghai in June, suspecting he had swallowed plastic while eating takeaway food.Instead, scans revealed a ceramic spoon lodged in his duodenum, the first part of the small intestine.Doctors at Shanghai Zhongshan Hospital said the spoon’s location was extremely risky. Even slight movement could have led to a puncture in the intestine, causing inflammation or serious internal bleeding, reported South China Morning Post.Yan then recalled a hazy incident during a trip to Thailand in January. After heavy drinking, he had tried to use a coffee spoon to induce vomiting. The spoon slipped from his hand and slid down his throat. He later blacked out and, upon waking, believed it had all been a dream. He blamed his stomach pain on vomiting.Back in Shanghai, Yan resumed his normal life, including regular workouts, with no major health problems. It wasn’t until the medical checkup that the truth came to light.On June 18, doctors performed endoscopic surgery to remove the spoon. The initial attempt using a snare forceps failed due to the spoon’s slippery surface. Zhou Hongping, head of the hospital’s endoscopy center, then led a more complex procedure using two forceps to drag the spoon into the stomach before switching tools for successful removal. The entire process took 90 minutes.Yan has since recovered and been discharged. He expressed relief that the spoon was found by chance before it caused any major harm.The bizarre case follows another recent incident in China where a 64-year-old man discovered a 17cm toothbrush had been inside his body for 52 years. He had accidentally swallowed it at age 12 and never told anyone, hoping it would dissolve on its own.
