Careworker Swallows 6-Inch COVID Test Swab, Undergoes Surgery

KEY POINTS

Lee tried to swallow the swab, but it only went halfway down her throat
The surgical process involved shoving a thin camera down her throat
The FDA had warned at-home test takers to only swab their noses

A 31-year-old careworker had to undergo surgery after she accidentally swallowed a six-inch COVID swab while taking a home test. Doctors said they never have attended to such a case before.

Bobby Lee, a mother from County Durham in the U.K., said the incident happened last month. She decided to do a home test after feeling unwell during a night shift, reported Yahoo News.

When Lee placed the swab in her mouth, it got stuck. "When I swabbed the back of my throat, I sort of gagged. The stick twanged in my mouth and got stuck at the back of my throat, with the swab down my throat and the end stuck in the roof of my mouth at the back," she was quoted by New York Post.

Lee then tried to swallow it. "It went down a bit, but it only went halfway down my throat so you could see the end of it sticking out of my throat. I didn't even ring 111 because I had my little girl with me, I just jumped in the car and drove straight to A&E," Lee said.

She added that she was "shocked" and wondered whether she was going to stop breathing.

On arrival at the hospital, Lee was shifted to another medical facility, where doctors tried to work out what to do. An operation was planned soon after. The procedure involved shoving a thin flexible camera down her throat to locate the tool, and then extracting the oversized Q-Tip with surgical tools.

"It had gone all the way into my tummy, the pictures they took with the camera down my throat even showed it near my intestines. It had to come out of my mouth though as if it had gotten into my intestines it would have punctured them," said Lee.

She added that the doctors reportedly told her that she was the first such case they attended.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration had warned people opting for at-home COVID-19 rapid test to only swab their noses. It had also released a set of suggestions to encourage safety, which includes making sure all parts of the test kits are inaccessible to pets and children. The FDA had also dismissed reports that the tests are more accurate when users also swab their throats.