Doctors shocked to find unusual object inside patient's stomach after she complained of nausea

If medical confidentiality didn't exist, we'd probably be shocked by all the anecdotes we could hear from emergency physicians. Working in a hospital requires a great deal of courage and self-sacrifice, and it's possible to come across unique, unusual and/or bloody cases every day and every hour of the day. In Texas, a medical center received an elderly patient complaining of nausea.

An endoscopy to discover what was hiding in her stomach

The patient's identity has not been revealed, nor even her exact age. However, the Daily Mail reports that she is an 'elderly woman' who was seen at the Dallas Medical Center.

Her symptoms? Mild pain, difficulty swallowing, and nausea. In itself, nothing to worry about, but as a precautionary measure, this elderly woman was nevertheless hospitalized.

To find out the cause of her problems, the doctors performed an endoscopy, an operation described by the Assurance Maladie as follows:

Upper digestive endoscopy, often called gastroscopy, consists of observing the esophagus, stomach and duodenum, using a flexible tube fitted with a small camera, and taking samples and performing surgical procedures.

And here's what the camera revealed...

Read more:Doctors shocked after finding this unusual object in a man's rectum

Doctors found dentures in the patient's stomach

When they examined the inside of her stomach, the doctors discovered... dentures! The patient, who suffers from dementia, had not realized that she had swallowed this object, despite its size.

After a two-hour operation, the surgeons were able to remove the dentures without causing any damage. The patient was able to return home the following day. And while this operation may seem out of the ordinary, it's actually much more common than it appears.

According to the surgeons:

Dentures are in fact one of the objects most frequently ingested by adults. The others are bones, chicken or fish, and jewelry.

Read more:'Baby giant': Doctors shocked after woman delivers the ‘largest baby’ they’ve ever seen

This article has been translated from Gentside FR.

Sources used:

Daily Mail: Doctors discover set of dentures lodged in dementia patient's STOMACH after she misplaced them

Assurance Maladie: Comment se déroule une endoscopie digestive haute ?