21 December,2011 03:01 PM IST | | Agencies
It seems the pen is mightier than the stomach also. A woman who swallowed a pen 25 years ago has it removed -- and it still works.
In fact, the surprising find only came to light after the woman, now 76, visited her doctor suffering from weight loss and diarrhoea.
An urgent investigation revealed areas of her large intestine had become inflamed, which was causing the abdominal pain.
Doctors at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital Foundation Trust then took a CT scan of her abdomen where they were amazed to find a "linear object" that looked much like a pen, the 'Daily Mail' reported.
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When questioned, the patient remembered that 25 years before she had used a felt-tip pen to poke her tonsils while looking at them in a mirror.
However, she had then fallen forward off a step and swallowed the pen by accident.
The doctors performed a gastroscopy, which confirmed there was a plastic felt-tip pen sitting in the lumen of the woman's stomach; it hadn't caused her any gastric damage, the 'Daily Mail' reported.
The medical team her decided that they should remove the pen as there was a small risk it could perforate her stomach lining.
It was removed under general anaesthetic and amazingly the doctors found the pen was still in working order.
Reporting the case in the 'British Medical Journal' Case Reports, the team led by Dr Oliver Waters, concluded: "Occasionally it may be worth believing the patient's account however unlikely it may be."
