In a strange medical case, a 7-year-old Nepalese boy survived after swallowing a 10 cm pencil without suffering any harm. X-ray examinations of the boy's chest and abdomen revealed that the pencil was stuck in his stomach. According to doctors, the boy was "active and cheerful" throughout the medical observation period, which lasted no more than 8 hours in the hospital, while the pencil remained in his belly.
Doctors advised that the boy drink a lot of water during the observation, and he was only allowed to eat bananas. A follow-up examination showed that the pencil was located near the muscular valve separating the small and large intestines after it moved downward. After 8 hours, the boy's mother reported that her son passed the pencil "in one long piece" through the natural passage.
Doctors stated in the journal "Radiology Case Reports" that swallowing "foreign objects" is common among children aged 6 months to 6 years. They added, "About 80 to 90 percent of foreign body ingestion cases resolve without the need for interventions; however, it can be very challenging for a long and sharp foreign object to pass normally through the digestive system."
