Choking woman uses toothbrush to dislodge food from throat


She had a toothbrush with death.

A 21-year-old woman reportedly swallowed her entire toothbrush after using it to dislodge a piece of food caught in her throat.

Heizea, a woman from Galdakao, Spain — whose full identity was withheld by foreign media — claimed she’d been eating turkey on November 29 when she began to choke on the dish.

Gasping for breath, her first move was to grab her toothbrush to try and force the turkey out of her throat — but she went too far and gulped down the 8-inch instrument.

Heizea explained that she had to act quickly as no one else was around to help. “My dad couldn’t help me because he’s stuck in a wheelchair with a damaged Achilles tendon, so I decided to help myself by using the toothbrush,” she said, according to Newsflash.


Heizea, 21
Heizea, a 21-year-old woman from Galdakao, Spain, spent three hours with the toothbrush stuck in her esophagus. Newsflash

“Because it was only getting worse, I grabbed the first thing I could get hold of which was the toothbrush to try and dislodge it,” she continued.

At the moment the turkey became loose, so too did her toothbrush: “I tried to hold it by the bristles but once the obstruction was cleared, it just got sucked in.”

Heizea was then rushed to the hospital — though, remarkably, has said she felt no pain during the shocking ordeal.

She recalled explaining her “bizarre” predicament to hospital staff upon admittance. “They all started rushing around and couldn’t believe it until they saw the x-rays, and it really was there,” Heizea said.


Heizea in a hospital bed with toothrush in question
Doctors were able to fish out the toothbrush from her upper digestive tract in just 40 minutes, without surgery Newsflash

Following three hours of examination and diagnosis, surgeons were able to remove the dental device during a 40-minute procedure while Heizea was under sedation.

Doctors were able to fish out the tool by looping the head of the toothbrush with surgical twine and pulling out, back through the esophagus — no surgery required.

“I woke up with the toothbrush next to me on the bedside table,” Heizea said, adding, “I was just glad I could breathe again.”


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