Nearly 300,000 Americans go to ER yearly to remove ‘foreign objects’ from strange places

How did that get there? 

Nearly 300,000 American adults wind up in the emergency room every year for having a “foreign object in body” — making it the ninth leading cause of unintentional injuries that land people in the hospital, according to a new analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. 

In 2021, there were 277,922 emergency room visits for “foreign object in body” — which included plastic swords and glow sticks in ears; magnets and diesel fuel up noses, and steak knives and video-game controllers down throats, according to a blogger who reviewed the reports on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s database.

Men with car keys and USB cords stuck in their penises also paid visits to the doc, according to the reports, along with women who sought medical help to fish soap bars and even spatulas out of their vaginas.

And taking up the rear: a staggering July study by the American Journal of Emergency Medicine revealed nearly 4,000 people were hospitalized with foreign objects in their rectum each year. 

Over half of the items found lodged in the caboose are sex toys like vibrators and anal beads, but marbles, bottles, and other detritus are also found.

To add insult to injury, the 277,922 foreign-body incidents cost an average of $5,000 at the hospital, according to personal injury lawyers at John Foy & Associates’ study of the CDC data. 

The biggest cause of unintentional, non-fatal injuries?

Accidental falls, comprise 5.6 million incidents annually and cost an average of $8,204 to treat.

Involuntary poisoning ranks as the second most common reason.