Doctors shocked by unusual cause of teen boy's chest pain
Doctors have made an unusual discovery after a teenage boy was taken to hospital emergency with chest pains.
The 17-year-old’s case was featured in The Journal of Emergency Medicine after he was hospitalised in the US state of Massachusetts.
Researchers wrote he had complained of pain for three days.
So, doctors performed an electrocardiogram to check his heart.
Doctors believed he had perimyocarditis – when there’s an inflammation of the sac around the heart.
They also performed a CT scan and found something in the right ventricle of his heart. Ventricles collect and expel blood.
In the ventricle doctors discovered “a 3.5-cm linear metallic foreign body”. The boy had somehow swallowed a sewing pin.
Doctors noted the boy’s case demonstrated the “potential devastating complications” that come with ingesting “foreign” objects.
They added his case also “challenged the paradigm” that swallowing small sharp objects can “rarely cause problems”.
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Doctors believe the boy swallowed the sewing pin “unknowingly”.
According to Live Science, the teen believes he may have accidentally swallowed the pin while doing some tailoring.
