When a 30-year-old woman went to the emergency room complaining of stomach pains, doctors never imagined what they would find. They tested her for everything they could think of, but all of her tests came back normal. Finally, one test revealed the source of her pain.

Doctors checked the young woman for a stomach ulcer, gallstones, hernia, irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, and the other things that would typically cause abdominal pain. All of their test results came back normal.

Her doctors noted that her heart rate was increased and her abdominal wall appeared to be swollen and irritated. Something was obviously bothering the woman, but what could it possibly be? Additional laboratory tests and ultrasounds all showed that the woman was normal and healthy, but doctors knew that couldn’t be the case.

The doctors questioned the woman about her recent health history and asked if she’d recently had surgery. They thought maybe a doctor had left something inside of her by accident, but she’d never had surgery. However, a CT scan of her abdomen showed that something metal was definitely lodged inside of her intestines. What could it possibly be they wondered?

The woman doesn’t remember ever swallowing anything out of the ordinary, and said she never had surgery, but doctors didn’t have a choice to operate and remove the object causing the woman’s discomfort. What they found was amazing and had likely been there for at least 10 years!

The 2 1/2 inch long piece of metal the doctors removed was a wire from the woman’s braces which she had removed at least 10 years prior. She didn’t remember ever swallowing the piece of metal either, and doctors were stumped at how that could have happened.

Luckily, the woman had the metal removed and will be fine, but doctors still can’t believe that she swallowed the metal and didn’t have symptoms until now. Most incidents like this present problems much earlier on.