Talk about brutal.
For one player, a game of beer pong gone terribly wrong.
The 19-year-old man was brought to hospital with severe pain in his throat, difficulty swallowing and irregular breathing following a round of the popular drinking game.
An initial examination showed that the back of the patient’s throat was swollen, while a subsequent X-ray revealed what appeared to be a bottle cap lodged in the upper part of the man’s esophagus.
The cap had fallen into the patient’s red Solo cup while imbibing, and he had swallowed it unconsciously an hour before arriving at the ER.
Even if he had stable breathing, doctors had to use surgical intervention to remove the bottle cap due to the possibility of injury or perforation.
This unfortunate young man underwent an emergency hard esophagoscopy – where a thin tube with a camera attached is inserted through the nose or mouth – without a problem.
The patient was lucky, as in many cases of accidental aspiration, foreign objects enter the trachea or other parts of the throat, endangering the patient’s breathing.
ENT doctors routinely treat foreign body ingestion (FB), the consequences of which range from discomfort to death.
Ingestion of FB is most common in patients under the age of 15, with the highest incidence occurring in children between one and three.
Last year, a 13-year-old New Zealand boy had part of his intestine removed after swallowing more than 100 high-powered magnets, and this past Christmas, a Colorado toddler underwent emergency surgery after a swallowed battery burned a hole in his esophagus.
About 11% of ENT emergencies are FBs, and FB aspiration accounts for about 3,000 deaths per year in the US.
According to Harvard Health, coins are the most common object ingested by children, accounting for more than 60% of cases in which children seek medical attention after craving a foreign object.
In 2024, a California teenager had to be hospitalized after swallowing a quarter, which stuck to the side of his airway, and in 2023, a Dallas bus driver was hailed as a “hero” after saving the life of a 7-year-old boy who swallowed a coin.
Although most ingested FBs are harmless and pass without incident, sharp, disc-shaped objects, such as the aforementioned bottle cap and quarter, are more dangerous and can cause perforation, necrosis, or obstruction.
In addition, young, intoxicated males who engage in high-risk drinking are at risk of accidental exposure as alcohol increases impulsivity and lowers immunity.
In fact, one college town in Germany had 14 separate incidents of people swallowing bottle caps over a 10-year period.
Experts note that the swallowed bottle cap case underscores the importance of prompt diagnosis, imaging, and airway assessment in the treatment and removal of dangerous foreign bodies.
