A 4-year-old boy from Ohio ate a whole box of chewing gum and ended up in the hospital risking his life. The picture of the Ohio 4-year-old boy’s esophagoscopy results is making the rounds in the tabloids. A huge mass of chewing gum – without sugar – stuck to over 25% of the stomach wall.
Doctors inserted an esophagoscope, a hollow metal tube, down her throat and used pliers to try to loosen pieces of rubber that were later pulled out. He was told by doctors that he was lucky the gum hadn’t blocked his intestines, which could have been fatal, but he has not suffered any long-term effects from the procedure.
Dr. Rajan, a gastroenterologist at Mayo Clinic, one of the Midwest’s health care chains, stressed the danger to children from chewing gum: “On very rare occasions, large amounts of chewing gum ingested combined with constipation they blocked the intestines in children. It is for this reason that the frequent swallowing of chewing gum should be discouraged, especially in children.”
