Most swallowed fish bones slip through the gut unnoticed. When one does punch a hole in the small intestine, though, it often lands in a surprisingly specific place: a small, finger-like pouch that only about 2% of people are born with.
In a 2025 review of 58 published cases of fishbone perforation of the intestine, that pouch, called a Meckel diverticulum, was the site of the injury in 8 of the 44 cases involving the small intestine. That works out to 18.2%, or nearly 1 in 5.
