A Nova Scotia man who ended up ingesting a metal brush bristle says the experience forced him to the emergency room.
Chester Poole of Yarmouth says the ordeal happened after making burgers on his barbecue.
“Took my first bite and I had this sharp pain in my throat as I swallowed,” he says.
Poole went to the emergency room, where he was told he no longer could eat or drink. The next day he saw an ear, nose and throat specialist in Halifax.
“The doctor came in and said, ‘I want to be brutally honest with you,’” says Poole. “He said, ‘There is one chance in 100 that I am even going to find this.”
Dr. Tim Brown was the one who scoped Poole's throat. He generally sees a couple cases every year.
“It is a tiny little needle, and if you think of the neck as a haystack they can get lodged anywhere between the mouth and the bottom of the throat and even further, so finding this tiny little filament in all that tissue can almost be mission impossible,” says Dr. Brown.
Fortunately, Dr. Brown located and removed the pin-sized bristle.
Health Canada suggests you inspect your barbecue brush and grill often, warning that, "The metal bristles on the brush can become loose over time and stick to the grill, then get on food and accidentally swallowed."
Poole says his brush wasn't even that old or well worn.
“If you aren't concerned about yourself, I think you should be concerned about your kids, grandkids, even church groups that have church barbecues,” says Poole.
The Yarmouth man has since replaced his wire brush with this wooden scraper, and doesn't plan on using a wire brush ever again.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Kelland Sundahl.
