You put what where? Thousands of Americans go to ER for 'foreign object' removal, CDC finds
"Orifices are not made for foreign object intrusion unless it's a doctor doing it for investigative medical purposes."
CLEVELAND (WJW) — America, the land of the free and the brave, is also home to roughly 4,000 individuals per year who head to the doctor to have foreign objects removed from their rear ends, according to a study released by the American Journal of Emergency Medicine this summer.
Of course, that isn't the only area from which items need to be recovered every year. In data recently released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as obtained by FOX News, nearly 300,000 people had to go to the emergency room in 2021 for foreign objects in their bodies, making it the ninth top cause of hospitalizations for unintentional injury.
"Orifices are not made for foreign object intrusion unless it's a doctor doing it for investigative medical purposes," Dr. Marc Siegel, a New York University professor, told FOX News.
But despite warnings from health care professionals, it's eye-opening to learn what has been lodged inside the human body. Mining the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s database reports for specific foreign objects, one Defector blogger offered up an unbelievable list from last year.
We're talking gummy worms and cheese up noses, steak knives and flashlights down throats, a plastic sword found lodged in an ear and more.
When it comes to rear ends, men are more likely than women to enlist doctor's removal services, the reported first-of-its-kind American Journal of Emergency Medicine study found. Sex toys account for more than half the items needed to be retrieved from that specific orifice.
The average age of those needing items taken out of their bottoms was 43, and researchers found there was an increase in hospital visits from 2012 to 2021, going from 1.2 per 100,000 people to 1.9.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission's 2022 data did not necessarily report how people got items stuck in any orifice or how long it took to remove them, but those that did have explanations -- such as "patient says he forgot to take foil off foil-wrapped burrito" for foil stuck in throat -- are worth the read.