All the Foreign Bodies That Got Stuck

When you think emergency room, you often think real emergencies. Life and death situations where doctors have to act fast. Sometimes that’s the case, but as I’ve learned from my wife, who is an ER doctor, a lot of people come in for less life-or-death and some come in for more, um, surprising situations.

One type of case seems to always surprise though, and that is the one of foreign-body-stuck-in-patient-rectum variety. Some cases really are a million to one shot or are kids just doing kid things. Most of the time though it’s an accident after trying something on purpose.

Below is a sample of all the things people get stuck, based on data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System.

At 44%, massage devices or vibrators, excluding shower attachments, are the most common foreign body to get stuck.

Non-glass bottles or jars make up about 5% of the pool. Glass bottles and jars make up another 3 percent.

Kids end up in the ER unexpectedly, hence toys (4%), pens and pencils (4%), and crayons and chalk (2%) enter the picture.

Computer equipment, 1%

Golf equipment, 1%

Manicuring devices, 1%

Drinking glasses, 1%

Tableware, 1%

Rope or string, 1%

Bags, 1%

Marbles, 1%

Anything is possible. Other reported objects include but not limited to: sewing equipment, Christmas decorations, coins, baseballs, pet supplies, game pieces, soaps, brushes, cleaning equipment, and more.

At 44%, massage devices or vibrators, excluding shower attachments, are the most common foreign body to get stuck.

Non-glass bottles or jars make up about 5% of the pool. Glass bottles and jars make up another 3 percent.

Kids end up in the ER unexpectedly, hence toys (4%), pens and pencils (4%), and crayons and chalk (2%) enter the picture.

Anything is possible. Other reported objects include but not limited to: sewing equipment, Christmas decorations, coins, baseballs, pet supplies, game pieces, soaps, brushes, cleaning equipment, and more.


 

Eventually, everything seems to become fair game. I’ve got nothing against it, but maybe make sure you have a good grip on the object before you put it somewhere. There’s a lot of sensitive organs in that area.

Notes

Become a member. Support an independent site. Make great charts.

See What You Get

Learn to Visualize Data See All →

How I Made That: Interactive Heatmap

Add interaction so that you can show different segments of the data and allow comparisons.

How to Make Alluvial Diagrams

Here’s how to do it in R from start to finish, plus editing in illustration software. Make design choices and trade-offs for more readable charts.

How to Make an Animated Beeswarm Chart

Beeswarm charts are useful to highlight individual categories or entities. Animating them can help highlight change over time.

Getting Started with Network Graphs in R

Add the vertices. Connect them with edges. Repeat as necessary.

Favorites

Seeing How Much We Ate Over the Years

How long will chicken reign supreme? Who wins between lemon and lime? Is nonfat ice cream really ice cream? Does grapefruit ever make a comeback? Find out in these charts.

The Most Gender-Switched Names in US History

We use some names mostly for boys and some mostly for girls, but then there is a small percentage that, over time, switched from one gender to another. Which names made the biggest switch?

The Stages of Relationships, Distributed

Everyone’s relationship timeline is a little different. This animation plays out real-life paths to marriage.

Real Chart Rules to Follow

There are rules—usually for specific chart types meant to be read in a specific way—that you shouldn’t break. When they are, everyone loses. This is that small handful.