The chest X-ray showed a metal rod running straight down the middle of a woman's body, from her neck into the middle of her chest. It measured 22.5 centimeters, nearly 9 inches, from end to end.
It was a kitchen spatula. The 34-year-old, who has anxiety and bulimia nervosa, had swallowed it during a purging episode. When she reached the emergency department, her vital signs were stable, but she could not swallow her own saliva and was sitting in a tripod position, leaning forward on her hands. Otolaryngologists at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia described how they removed it, and why they started with her airway, in Clinical Case Reports, published July 31, 2026.
