Doctors Baffled by Random Object Revealed in X-Ray to Be Lodged Inside Patient's Throat

Doctors in Russia were baffled after they discovered something lodged in a man's throat that most definitely did not belong there.

It was a piece of a water heater.

According to the Austrian Times, the patient was brought to the hospital in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, complaining of pain in his throat and difficulty breathing. He was given an X-ray, which revealed an object stretching his esophagus from its normal diameter of about 2-3 centimeters to four or five times that size.

Doctors tried several times to remove the object from the patient's throat, but were concerned that using too much force could permanently damage his esophagus. Still, they didn't seem to have any other options.

How did that get in there? Doctors left baffled by X-ray after man complains of sore neck https://t.co/sFuCyEvDpp pic.twitter.com/BgQ4i2CKre

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"It was a critical situation, there was a risk at any stage that he might suffocate and die. His oesophagus was completely blocked by the foreign object," Dr. Oles Kalinin said.

After about a 20-minute operation, Kalanin managed to remove the object from the man's throat, but was befuddled as to how it got there in the first place.

According to the report, the medics and doctor weren't allowed to ask the patient how exactly the piece ended up in his throat, and the man never told them, except to say it was an accident and he'd noticed while eating lunch one day.

Kalanin called that "an unlikely story." But, he added, it's "one that will have to remain a mystery it seems."

It's also not clear when the operation occurred, but the reports were published Dec. 30. It's also not clear how long the object had been inside the man's throat.

(H/T: Austrian Times)

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