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Woman Swallows Pen: Incredible Writing Utensil Still Works After 25 Years In Woman's Stomach

First Posted: 12/20/11 11:35 AM ET Updated: 12/20/11 03:24 PM ET

Woman Swallows Pen
After 25 years, doctors finally read the writing on the wall, and removed a pen from a British woman's stomach.

Twenty-five years ago, a woman told her husband and general practitioner that she accidentally swallowed a felt-tip pen. They didn't believe her at the time, and now they're eating their words.

In a bizarre medical story, doctors in Britain say that they removed an intact pen from a woman's stomach -- and it still writes, according to a case report published in the British Medical Journal.

Dr. Oliver Richard Waters and his colleagues discovered the missing writing utensil after the 76-year-old patient began complaining of weight loss and diarrhea. The doctors found severe diverticulosis -- a disease characterized by small bulging pockets from the colon commonly found in elderly people -- and although the pen did not cause the intestinal issues, doctors decided to remove the foreign object anyway.

"Most gastroenterologists will have stories of coins, batteries, bits of meat etc, but this is one of the oddest simply because it sat there for so long unnoticed," Dr. Waters told the Huffington Post in an e-mail.

Dr. Waters added that the pen was "too corroded to see a brand name" and that he has no brand loyalty regarding writing utensils.

So, who swallows a pen?

CTV News explains:

The woman says she remembers standing on a set of stairs, using a hand mirror and the felt-tip pen to investigate a lump on her tonsil. Why she was standing on the stairs while doing this isn't clear; perhaps the light was better there. In any case, the woman managed to slip and fall and swallow the pen whole.

The doctors took the pen and wrote the word "hello" on a piece of paper.

Several reports indicate that the woman is now in good health.

And that's all she wrote.

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FOLLOW HUFFPOST WEIRD NEWS

Twenty-five years ago, a woman told her husband and general practitioner that she accidentally swallowed a felt-tip pen. They didn't believe her at the time, and now they're eating their words. In...
Twenty-five years ago, a woman told her husband and general practitioner that she accidentally swallowed a felt-tip pen. They didn't believe her at the time, and now they're eating their words. In...
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
iowastate
07:40 PM on 10/22/2012
too bad they couldn't get the brand name I would like to buy that pen
05:44 PM on 09/10/2012
How can you honestly go 25 years with a pen in your stomach and not do anything about it for that long?!?!?! i am baffled how this could possibly be a freak accident and go that long in a human body.
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
11:21 PM on 12/22/2011
Never know when an extra pen might come in handy.
11:41 AM on 12/22/2011
Anyone notice the face when the video is paused at the begining?
07:23 AM on 12/22/2011
Why, why, why for the love of GOD in heaven is this even news! Weird or otherwise!! Who gives a *&%$@! How stupid to you have to be to have swallowed a pen and not realized it was missing! What's worse is that fact that this story has been shown on websites all over the web!

What's next? "Man finds 100 year old penny...and it's still shiny!!!" "Forgotton lunch still tastes good after six months!!!!" "American media sites reach the highest levels of mundane in decades!!!"
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
iowastate
07:43 PM on 10/22/2012
It is a relief to me to have this instead of people insulting each other because they really believe it matter which of the nit wits elected for American president would make a difference !

it never does and never will - we simply exchange one set of crooks for another every few years and Washington D.C. continues on its merry larcenous way
04:51 PM on 12/21/2011
This will make a great commercial. What brand name was the pen?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Brianna Cole
Which one wins? The one you feed.
11:32 PM on 12/21/2011
It says right in the article that it was too corroded to see the name...
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
melon83
04:45 PM on 12/21/2011
This is one way to keep people from stealing your pens I guess.
04:36 PM on 12/21/2011
I kept a pen in my shirt pocket once and it leaked.
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StrawHat
Eat veggies, don't vote for them
02:14 PM on 12/21/2011
I'm appalled that her doctor and her husband treated her that way.

She should have dumped the husband and sought out a rational doctor.
10:35 AM on 12/21/2011
I guess some people will do anything to keep people from stealing their pens. I hate when someone steals my pen.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
patpollard6
09:29 AM on 12/21/2011
The pen is still working, wasn't made in china.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
TERPMOM
08:02 AM on 12/21/2011
Timex watches used to run an ad "Takes a licking and keeps on ticking". (Old enough to remember that?) Maybe pen maker can put the durability of this pen into their ads. BTW, I swallowed a 1/2 crt. diamond ring that got into one of many hamburger patties I made for a afternoon cookout. I was lucky, I was the one who randomly selected THAT burger. I chomped down on it and thought...must be a piece of gristle .... and swallowed it. That solved that mystery when later that evening, I noticed it was missing from my ring! Thank God, it wasn't the big one! Lesson learned ... no matter how clean your hands are ... remember to remove your rings before making patties!!
10:37 AM on 12/21/2011
Takes a digesting and keeps on writing.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Randy McKenzie
05:50 PM on 12/21/2011
Did you get it back?
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
TERPMOM
11:20 PM on 12/21/2011
No I didn't. Estimated worth over $350. I was stunned that I could come up with the answer to what had happened to it. And that was several days past eating the hamburger. I don't think pumping our septic would have found it.
Several years before this incident, the women I bought the house from asked me to be on the lookout for her wedding and engagement rings valued at over $20,000. She thought she had lost them somewhere in the house......Now I might have have suited up and gone into the septic looking for those.
mscellanus
U may kiss it!
07:25 AM on 12/21/2011
I am surprised it didn't bother her or caused internal bleeding having a stiff pen inside her stomach. Didn't she move around or bend? Couldn't she feel it?
06:30 AM on 12/21/2011
Deep Throat !!
05:58 AM on 12/21/2011
Some women are better at swallowing things, than are others. It takes practice.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Randy McKenzie
05:51 PM on 12/21/2011
If she was only used to something the size of a pen, that says a lot about her husband doesn't it?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Brianna Cole
Which one wins? The one you feed.
11:34 PM on 12/21/2011
I hope her husband doesn't have a sharp pointy end..... that makes a big difference in my opinion regardless of girth....
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
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08:25 AM on 12/22/2011
No.