Odd X-Rays as Art

Some people eat very strange things. Sometimes it’s because they were just drunk at the time like the Bournemouth University (UK) student who swallowed a key (picture 1). Fortunately for him, the doctors snickered and told him it will pass. It did.

2. X-rays proved their diagnostic worth with this early x-ray taken in 1897 by the Mayo brothers which showed a vest buckle swallowed by a small boy. It was successfully removed.

3. Sometimes though, the damage is already done like the mercury battery swallowed by a little girl. Unfortunately, her gastric acids had already corroded the battery and released the toxin. The medical staff couldn’t prevent her eventual renal failure.

4. A 7 year old boy accidentally swallowed his grill or mouth jewelry but fortunately that was safely passed through with time.

5. Magnets are dangerous to small children. This case shows magnets in a small child which came together inside her and gave her wounds similar to those caused by gunshots and stabbings. She pulled through after surgery.

It’s not just children who swallow things but a mentally unbalanced man ate an antennae (6), a woman ingested a fork(7) and in a bizarre case of the gag reflex happening to another woman whilst brushing the back of her tongue,a toothbrush gets swallowed. The arrow in picture (8) indicates the bristle head. A woman in China swallowed 20 cobblestones (9) after a fight with her boyfriend. She assumed they would pass but they stayed and rattled around in her stomach. She was advised to get them surgically removed.

Lastly, a prisoner attempted to eat his way out of jail by swallowing bits of wire mesh (10) which passed out naturally.