After three decades, doctors in China successfully extracted a cigarette lighter from a man’s stomach using a condom, an object he had swallowed during a drunken bet.
A man in Chengdu, China, has finally had a cigarette lighter removed from his stomach more than three decades after swallowing it during a drunken bet in 1991, with doctors resorting to an improvised method using a condom after forceps repeatedly slipped off the smooth object. Known only as Deng, the man said, “I thought it would pass naturally, but I didn’t expect it to just stay there,” adding that he had lived with only occasional stomach pains until severe symptoms hit in October, prompting a hospital visit.
A gastroscopy revealed a “large black rectangular object,” and after forceps failed, medics used a condom to scoop and extract the 7-cm lighter, which still contained flammable liquid that doctors warned could “cause perforation or endanger life” if it leaked. Thankfully, Deng is now recovering without surgery after the 20-minute procedure.