Doctors in central Vietnam have removed a steel teaspoon from the intestine of a 19-year old girl who had swallowed it while drinking lemonade.
Phan Thi Thu Ha, a student in Quang Tri Province, was rushed to the Hue Central Hospital on April 8 where an X-ray showed the spoon stuck in her duodenum, the first part of the small intestine immediately beyond the stomach.
A doctor takes the spoon out using a pair of forceps. Photo supplied by doctors
Amazingly, the spoon, measuring around 10 cm, manage to go down her throat instantly, even before she realized she had gulped it.
On April 10 doctors performed an upper endoscopy through her throat but were unable to reach the spoon.
Three days later they decided to insert an endoscope through a small cut in her stomach’s antral section to remove it.
Ha’s condition is stable, and she could be discharged in a few days, they said.