Man Accidentally Swallows Scissors

After finishing dinner, 27 year old Kong Lin of Putian, China, used a pair of four inch scissors as a toothpick. While Lin was picking his teeth, his friend told a hilarious joke, prompting Lin to laugh and he gulped down the clippers handle first. The scissors became lodged in Lin's throat and he couldn't cough them up because the sharp points were stucking into his epiglottis, the tissue that seals off the windpipe while swallowing.

Lin was rushed to the hospital where surgeons feared that a general anesthetic to put him to sleep would cause Lin's throat to relax and the scissors go deeper into his body. Doctors gave Lin a local anesthetic to numb the area they cut open to retreive the cutters. The surgery took approximately 30 minutes and Mr. Lin was wide awake. Dr. Chen Wei explains, "Mr. Lin arrived having difficulty swallowing, blood mixed with his saliva." The damage inside his throat was minimal but Kong Lin now knows that scissors should never be used as toothpicks.