MISHAP TO SWORD SWALLOWER

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28019, 13 July 1956, Page 6

MISHAP TO SWORD SWALLOWER

“ Weapon ” Broke During Practice (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON. July 12. In the June issue of the New Zealand Medical Journal Mr Ellis Dick reports a case from the Waikato Hospital of a sword swallower who practised his technique with a length of hardboard 18 inches long and half an inch wide. On a trial swallow, he heard a crack and withdrew eight and a half inches of his sword, leaving nine and a half inches in situ, states the report. At the time, this did not unduly upset him emotionally or physically and it was not until he developed epigastric pain, made worse by s’. ’allowing food, that he sought medical advice five days later. He still did not appreciate the gravity of the situation After an examination, immediate re*moval was considered necessary. The patient’s offer to pass the oesophagoscope himself was declined. He was anaesthetised, oesophagoscaped and a macerated length of hardboard was seen protruding from the stomach into the lower oesophagus, now reddened by the presence of a foreign body. The hardboard was removed and the patient made an uneventful recovery.

He has resumed sword swallowing, but now sticks to steel. The report adds that he complains he cannot manage to swallow the last six inches owing to the feeling of the sword being gripped at its lower end, as it doubtless is, in the region of the cardia. This inability hurts his pride apd impairs his act.