“Swallowed rice after a fish bone got stuck...” A 2.9-cm bone pierced a 68-year-old woman’s heart [Warning Signs]

[Financial News]   While eating fish, she got a bone stuck in her throat. To relieve the discomfort, she rolled a large ball of rice and swallowed it. She naively hoped the bone would slide down with the rice. But five days later, the 68-year-old woman was rushed to the emergency room with chest pain, a high fever and shortness of breath.
The results of the detailed examination were shocking. The fish bone that had lodged in her throat had completely pierced the esophageal wall and lodged in the heart’s left atrium, a chamber inside the heart through which blood flows.
A remarkable case of a fish bone piercing through tissue, reported by Chinese doctors, was recently accepted for publication in JACC: Case Reports, an international journal of the American College of Cardiology.

How could a bone stuck in the throat work its way into the heart? The answer lies in the body’s anatomy. The heart’s left atrium lies very close to, and directly in front of, the esophagus as it runs through the chest.
When food is forced down while a sharp bone is lodged in the esophagus, the risk that it will pierce the esophageal wall increases. The researchers explained this as the “pump-saw effect.” The esophagus repeatedly contracts and relaxes to move food down, while the heart beats continuously. The constant movement of these organs, they said, exerted force on the sharp bone like a saw, driving it through the heart wall.
The woman’s attempt to “swallow rice” was like pouring oil on a fire. A CT scan showed that the bone was about 2.9 cm long. The heart had already been directly injured by the bone, and an infection was developing.

This was no simple bone-removal procedure. A multidisciplinary team, including cardiac surgeons, thoracic surgeons and anesthesiologists, was urgently brought in. It was a major operation, requiring a heart-lung machine to take over the functions of the heart and lungs during surgery.
What surgeons found when they opened her chest was more serious than expected. The bone had pierced the side wall of the left atrium, and an abscess caused by infection had formed around it. An abnormal, infected mass (vegetation) measuring 3 cm across was also attached to the septum dividing the atria.
The medical team carefully removed the bone intact, excised all the infected tissue inside the heart and sutured the torn wall of the left atrium. The lengthy surgery was over only after they removed necrotic tissue around the hole in the esophagus and inserted a drainage tube. A single small bone had wreaked havoc on both the heart and the esophagus. Fortunately, the woman made it through the surgery, and a follow-up examination a month later showed that her heart function had fully recovered.



Folk remedies such as swallowing rice or drinking vinegar when a fish bone gets stuck in the throat are strictly contraindicated medically. Forcing food down when a bone is lodged in the esophagus can drive it in deeper or tear the lining. If the pain persists or you have difficulty swallowing saliva, go immediately to an ENT clinic or emergency room to have it removed using a safe method, such as endoscopy.
Trying to force down a small fish bone led to major open-heart surgery. Dangerous folk remedies we have followed without a second thought can sometimes become an irreversible weapon aimed at the heart.

[email protected] Jeon Sang-il Reporter