Woman Uses Toothbrush To Stop From Choking Before It Backfires
Another reason to keep a toothbrush handy (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
Brushing your teeth doesn’t only prevent plaque and tooth decay. Having your toothbrush close by could save your life. A 21-year old woman reportedly swallowed her toothbrush after using it to remove a piece of food stuck in her throat she was choking on.
The toothbrush quickly went from hero to the villain after the mishap. Thankfully, everything ended up okay.
Toothbrush Saves Woman From Choking
Heizea, who’s from Spain, said she was eating turkey when she began to choke. Struggling to breathe, she was able to grab her toothbrush and force the turkey out of her throat. However, she went a little too far and ended up swallowing the 8-inch toothbrush, according to NY Post.
According to Heizea, she had to act fast because she was alone and didn’t have anyone around to assist her. According to Newsflash, she said, “My dad couldn’t help me because he’s stuck in a wheelchair with a damaged Achilles tendon, so I decided to help myself by using the toothbrush.”
Heizea went on to say, “Because it was only getting worse, I grabbed the first thing I could get hold of which was the toothbrush to try to dislodge it.”
After swallowing the toothbrush, she was rushed to the hospital. During the time she reportedly said she experienced no pain. I have to imagine it was incredibly traumatic, though. I know I’d be freaking out and panicking.
Don’t Forget To Brush!
After hours of examinations, surgeons were able to get the toothbrush out during a 40-minute procedure. No surgery was required as doctors were reportedly able to fish the toothbrush out using surgical twine.
After recovering, Heizea said, “I woke up with the toothbrush next to me on the bedside table. I was just glad I could breathe again.”
Personally, after an incident like that I’m switching to an electric brush. Something that I can’t accidentally swallow. You have to look at that thing twice a day (if you’re listening to your dentist). That seems like it would be traumatic to see twice a day every day and be reminded of that awful experience. Ouch!
See a photo here!
10 Weirdest Songs To Perform CPR To, Per NY Presbyterian Hospital
As anyone who has watched the classic episode of The Office where the Dunder Mifflin team learned CPR (sort of) knows, the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive” is the perfect song to do CPR to. While the episode is hilarious, CPR is no laughing matter. Lyrically, “Stayin’ Alive” is a bit on the nose. But it is also 100 beats per minute, which is the perfect pace to administer CPR.
You shouldn’t be picky about music when administering CPR, of course. Time is of the essence. But just in case, New York Presbyterian Hospital has a playlist of songs at 100bpm. Though the playlist has 57 songs and runs 3 and a half hours, we picked the funniest and oddest ones to play in the crucial moment of saving someone’s life.
Per the Mayo Clinic, Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is a lifesaving technique that’s useful in many emergencies, such as a heart attack or near drowning, in which someone’s breathing or heartbeat has stopped. If you’re afraid to do CPR or unsure how to perform CPR correctly, know that it’s always better to try than to do nothing at all, so pick a tune and get to pumpin’ because the difference between doing something and doing nothing could be someone’s life. But, hey, why not dedicate a little time so that you are actually prepared to take action if you need to. Learn more about the basics here.
Incidentally, in the aforementioned scene from The Office, the CPR instructor tells Steve Carrell’s Michael Scott to sing “Stayin’ Alive,” and he instead starts singing Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.” That song is also at 100bpm, so that would have worked as well (assuming that Michael is better at administering CPR than he is at keeping secrets). But you wouldn’t want to start with the intro of that song, which is slower than 100 bpm, just jump right to the chorus.
See below our 10 favorites from the list:
Cort Freeman was born and raised in Metro Detroit. He was named Clarkston High School 2009 Class Clown 13 years after graduating. Totally normal thing to happen. That’s thanks to his time spent as an Intern at Comedy Central and Social Media Correspondent for The Colbert Report. Cort has done comedy across the country, both standing up and sitting down. When he’s not trying to make you laugh on-air and online, he’s probably at home enjoying his favorite shows like Seinfeld, South Park, and The Office. He’s also totally uncomfortable writing about himself in the third person. Cort enjoys writing about comedy, food, sports, and entertainment. So, basically anything and everything.
