While not the most common foreign object to be caught in the throat, wire bristles from grill brushes are something physicians should be on the lookout for.

Candyce Woods from Texas wrote on Facebook in July that she experienced a trauma similar to Pelham's, according to the Australian site 9News.


After multiple visits to healthcare facilities she ultimately had surgery.

"The surgery was almost 3 hours long, they finally found the wire bristle that was embedded in my esophagus and had already skin growing over it [sic]," she wrote.

Federal President of the Australian Society of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Dr. Phillip Fisher, told 9News that such injuries, while relatively uncommon, are not unheard of.

"I've only once seen a wire bristle [ingested] – I've seen lots and lots of other foreign objects that've got stuck. Most commonly they're bones, but I've seen all sorts of other things," he told the site.

In the U.S., metal bristles injured 43 people from 2002 to 2014, according a 2016 study from the journal Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, that looked at 100 emergency departments.

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