This image shows an entire row of false teeth lodged in the throat of a pensioner who accidentally swallowed it while eating a banana.
Mr Zhu, 88, did not realise he had eaten in his own dentures until he began experiencing chest pains a short while later, but he had to wait some 30 hours before they were finally retrieved.
The pensioner from Yunnan Province in south-western China was treated at Yunnan First People’s Hospital in regional capital Kunming following the accident on 2nd April.
Mr Zhu, who revealed his dentures would sometimes come loose when he coughs, recalled: “I was eating a banana. I don’t know how, but it came off and I swallowed it with the banana.
“At first I thought it had fallen on the floor. I couldn’t find it. Then my chest started to hurt.”
Mr Zhu’s granddaughter, named only as ‘Xiao Yin’, said: “We took him to a local hospital in our town, but doctors there couldn’t find his bottom row of false teeth.
“It was only when we came to Kunming that doctors discovered them in his oesophagus.”
Song Zhengji, head of gastroenterology at Yunnan First People’s Hospital, reported: “By the time he arrived, it had already been more than 24 hours.
“Tests showed a high white blood cell count, indicating an infection.
“The dentures were lodged in the middle of his throat. It was surrounded by major arteries, but fortunately he did not appear to suffer any serious injury to his oesophagus.”
Mr Zhu was anaesthetised and wheeled into an operating theatre, where medics retrieved his false teeth in a procedure lasting just under one hour.
The dentures, which were returned to Mr Zhu, had been in his throat for some 30 hours.
According to reports, the pensioner has since made a full recovery and was discharged about a week later.
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Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report
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