'It went down my stomach': Mother nearly dies after accidentally swallowing her toothbrush

Doctors “didn't believe it” after seeing the footage. Illustration Envato Elements – Zinkevych_D

A woman nearly died in late July after accidentally swallowing her toothbrush.

The 38-year-old woman was on vacation in Croatia with her husband and two children to visit her in-laws in late July.

The accident happened on July 27 while the thirty-year-old was getting ready for bed. The woman was brushing her teeth when her 8-inch toothbrush slipped from her fingers and ended up in her throat, reports The Mirror.

Doctors were unable to remove it

How the toothbrush got into her windpipe ? Suffering from muscle spasms in her throat, the mother-of-one usually does exercises to stretch her muscles and prevent pain. Which makes her throat a little wider than normal. 

Panicked, she tried to grab the toothbrush, but in vain. It fell into her stomach. Her husband then immediately took her to the hospital where she underwent a stomach ultrasound.

After seeing the images, the doctors “didn't believe her”. So the poor woman went home for the night and came back the next day for an upper endoscopy. Without much success either, specifies The Mirror.

“I kept trying to catch it but I couldn't”

The thirty-year-old had to be taken to KBC Split hospital in Croatia, for a 45-minute operation to finally remove the toothbrush. To do this, the doctors put a string wrapped around a camera and inserted it down her throat, while the young woman remained awake for the operation.

“Luckily, I didn't choke and the toothbrush went down into my stomach. When I swallowed it, I thought, “Oh my God, I'm going to die.” I kept swallowing, knowing I could still breathe &ndash I kept trying to catch it but I couldn't,” she said.

The mother from Ohio, USA, said she was “happy to be alive" but “worried about using a toothbrush again".