A Colombian woman discovered a needle and thread was stuck inside her for 11 years after the object caused her to experience severe pain.
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After giving birth to her fourth child in 2012, Maria Aderlina Forero had her fallopian tubes tied but didn’t realize that doctors had left some of the surgical equipment inside her. According to the New York Post, Forero assumed she was dealing with postpartum depression after experiencing pain in her pelvic area. However, the pain worsened and made daily living unbearable.
“Several days later, these pains started. They didn’t stop, so I started making appointments, and every time I went they sent me to take acetaminophen and that’s it,” she explained to Venezuelan outlet, La Patilla. The intense pain caused her to switch jobs frequently.
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It became costly for her to visit doctors since she would have to use her husband’s motorcycle to ride into town. The hospital was also two hours away and doctors also tried to give her stronger painkillers such as meloxicam but nothing helped. There were times she was unable to see a doctor because the harsh winter conditions, which would lead to roads being destroyed.
In November 2022, she finally learned after an MRI scan that the pain was caused by a thread and needle in her stomach. “He told me that in surgery they left me a needle I couldn’t believe it and neither could she,” she said to the outlet. When she brought the results to her original doctor, he claimed she could’ve swallowed the objects.
Currently, she’s waiting to be assessed so she can have the needle and thread surgically removed.
Depending on the kind of foreign item, where it is located, and how your body reacts to it, years spent with a foreign object inside your body might result in a number of issues. Foreign objects that are permeable or that contain bacteria can serve as nidus for infection. The tissues close by may swell, turn red, and hurt over time. Infected tissues or neighboring organs may become infected as well, leading to sepsis, abscesses, or persistent inflammation. Your body may develop a protective coating of scar tissue, known as a granuloma, around the foreign object if it is inactive or incapable of degrading. The granuloma may swell, hurt, or make neighboring organs or tissues uncomfortable. It may also impair their ability to function.
Over time, some foreign objects, including implants, mesh, and surgical clips, may migrate from their initial site. Organ perforation, adhesion development, or nerve injury may result from this. Rarely, a foreign object that has been left inside your body can encourage the development of malignant cells. This is hypothesized to occur when an object produces long-term inflammation or irritation, which harms neighboring cells’ DNA and raises the likelihood of mutation in those cells.