A 57-year-old woman was sewing at home when she did what countless people who sew do without thinking. She parked the needle between her lips. At 2 p.m., she swallowed it. She never felt it go down, and she ate dinner that evening without a single complaint.
Hours later, a sore throat and hoarseness set in. She called an ambulance in the middle of the night. When paramedics arrived, they found her agitated, unsteady on her feet, and slurring her words. Those signs pointed in one direction, and the hospital moved fast in that direction.
