Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas recently revealed that she’d “thought that was it” after a fish bone became lodged in her throat. Ballas’s terrifying ordeal lasted for 20 minutes, with the judge struggling to breathe until her hair and makeup artist managed to dislodge the bone using the Heimlich manoeuvre (also known as abdominal thrusts).
Ballas certainly isn’t the first person to make the news for such an ordeal. Even the late Queen Mother had experienced something similar.
Fish bones are actually one of the most common reasons people end up in the emergency department. This phenomenon is particularly common in Asian countries, where diets tend to include a lot of fish. The problem is so great, in fact, that in China specialist fish bone removal clinics have popped up.
