Mightier than the sword, indeed. Amazing story.
Mighty Pen of the Day: An elderly British who went to the doctor complaining of weight loss and diarrhea was found to have a black felt-tip pen lodged “in the lumen of the stomach,” according to a case report in the British Medical Journal.
That’s not even the amazing part: The pen, which had been inside the woman for over 25 years, was successfully extracted, and found to be fully functional (see evidence below).
The patient claimed she accidentally swallowed the pen while “interrogating a spot on her tonsil” using a mirror for guidance. She slipped, and the pen went down her gullet, landing in her stomach.
Not only did it manage to survive its caustic environment for a quarter century, but, even more surprisingly, the GI specialist discovered that her current medical condition was not related to the pen.
In fact, the pen had done next to no damage to her GI tract.
“This case highlights that plain abdominal x-rays may not identify ingested plastic objects and occasionally it may be worth believing the patient’s account however unlikely it may be,” Dr. Oliver Richard Waters wrote in his report for BMJ.
[msnbc.]
Sky & Em's dad. Kim's husband. Tom & Linda's son. I work in radio, at WAOR in South Bend, IN. I write fiction. I also play catch with a demanding Yorkie.
