A TEENAGE boy came close to death after accidentally swallowing a compass during a maths class. Shocking images show the compass needle lodged inside the teen’s stomach – before disappearing mid-surgery into his small intestine and sending doctors into a panic. 13-year-old Xiao Yu was treated at Foshan Women’s and Children’s Hospital in China’s southern […]
A TEENAGE boy came close to death after accidentally swallowing a compass during a maths class.
Shocking images show the compass needle lodged inside the teen’s stomach – before disappearing mid-surgery into his small intestine and sending doctors into a panic.
13-year-old Xiao Yu was treated at Foshan Women’s and Children’s Hospital in China’s southern province of Guangdong on Saturday.
Paediatrician Chen Cheng said the schoolboy had accidentally swallowed the metal point of his compass while doing classwork in a maths lesson.
The startled teen alerted his teacher, who then told his parents and took him to hospital.
Doctor Chen said scans quickly located the metal compass needle in his stomach – which was at a huge risk of being punctured by the sharp object.
The teenager was wheeled into an operating theatre and underwent an emergency gastroscopy to retrieve the needle point.
The surgery quickly turned tricky, with doctors unable to locate the metallic object in the boy’s stomach – which was fill with half-digested food.
By the time medics could clear his stomach of food scraps, the needle had disappeared into his small intestine.
Xiao Yu was kept under medical observation for three days until the needle settled in his large intestine.
Doctor Chen then retrieved the compass needle in a colonoscopy.
The medic said: “Luckily, the young patient experienced no stomach pains or intestinal ruptures.”
Doctor Chen attempted to retrieve the compass needing using a gastroscope, but said he was prepared to operate on him as soon as there were signs of a rupture.
He added: “During the eventual colonoscopy, the metal needle was easy to find. It was lodged at the entrance of his appendix.”
“Still, it was challenging to remove because it could easily have caused secondary injury to his intestines.”
Hospital footage shows Doctor Chen expertly retrieving the metal needle using a pair of graspers and extracting the instrument from the boy’s anus.
Doctor Chen noted: “The procedure looks easy, but it really isn’t.”
“The needle was very thin and sharp, so there was always a risk of cutting or rupturing the intestine.”
“I was quite nervous!”
