An unnamed 14-year-old boy living in Australia has caused a tennis ball inserted through his anus to get stuck in his intestines, according to a report published in the medical journal. When the boy, who tried to remove the tennis ball naturally, failed in this regard, he applied to the doctor.
DID NOT HAVE ANY DISCOMFORT
Although X-rays after the hospital interventions appeared to show that the 14-year-old was experimenting with a round, white egg, it was actually a golf ball pictured leading to the sigmoid colon, the last part of the large intestine that connects to the rectum. The child, whose name has not been released, panicked when he could not dispose of the golf ball by defecating, and his mother was informed of his situation. The child did not complain of any discomfort, according to the report.
STAYED IN THE BOTTOM FOR 24 HOURS
Doctors tried to remove the golf ball with various devices. They reported that they discontinued the “aggressive” interventions after more than two hours in the hope that the golf ball would “spontaneously enter the rectum.” But an X-ray showed it was still there even after 24 hours.
GOLF BALL REMOVED WITH LAUNCHER
The boy’s family was reportedly dissatisfied with doctors attempting further physical distancing, so medical professionals prescribed a liter of laxatives. Three hours later, the doctors noticed that the golf ball was “emptied successfully” and observed “no evidence of bowel injury”. However, they advised the boy not to “put other objects into his rectum in the future.”
Doctors recommended that prospective patients with a foreign body (in cases where bowel function is not impaired) be given laxatives in the hope that the body will pass without surgical intervention. “A golf ball presents unique technical challenges when attempting to remove it from the column because of its mechanical properties,” the authors of the report wrote. “These include its large size, spherical shape, incompressibility, and presence of pits that prevent suction sealing.”