Current:Home > Back6 doctors swallowed Lego heads for science. Here's what came out-Angel Dreamer Wealth Society D1 Reviews & Insights
6 doctors swallowed Lego heads for science. Here's what came out
View Date:2024-12-23 21:17:05
Editor's note: This episode contains frequent and mildly graphic mentions of poop. It may cause giggles in children, and certain adults.
When Dr. Andy Tagg was a toddler, he swallowed a Lego piece. Actually, two, stuck together.
"I thought, well, just put it in your mouth and try and get your teeth between the little pieces," he says. The next thing he knew, it went down the hatch.
As an emergency physician at Western Health, in Melbourne, Australia, Andy says he meets a lot of anxious parents whose children succumbed to this impulse. The vast majority of kids, like Andy, simply pass the object through their stool within a day or so. Still, Andy wondered whether there was a way to spare parents from needless worry.
Sure, you can reassure parents one-by-one that they probably don't need to come to the emergency room—or, worse yet, dig through their kid's poop—in search of the everyday object.
But Andy and five other pediatricians wondered, is there a way to get this message out ... through science?
A rigorous examination
The six doctors devised an experiment, and published the results.
"Each of them swallowed a Lego head," says science journalist Sabrina Imbler, who wrote about the experiment for The Defector. "They wanted to, basically, see how long it took to swallow and excrete a plastic toy."
Recently, Sabrina sat down with Short Wave Scientist in Residence Regina G. Barber to chart the journey of six lego heads, and what came out on the other side.
The study excluded three criteria:
- A previous gastrointestinal surgery
- The inability to ingest foreign objects
- An "aversion to searching through faecal matter"—the Short Wave team favorite
Researchers then measured the time it took for the gulped Lego heads to be passed. The time interval was given a Found and Retrieved Time (FART) score.
An important exception
Andy Tagg and his collaborators also wanted to raise awareness about a few types of objects that are, in fact, hazardous to kids if swallowed. An important one is "button batteries," the small, round, wafer-shaped batteries often found in electronic toys.
"Button batteries can actually burn through an esophagus in a couple of hours," says Imbler. "So they're very, very dangerous—very different from swallowing a coin or a Lego head."
For more on what to do when someone swallows a foreign object, check out the American Academy of Pediatrics information page.
Learn about Sabrina Imbler's new book, How Far the Light Reaches.
Listen to Short Wave on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.
This episode was produced by Margaret Cirino, edited by Gabriel Spitzer and fact checked by Anil Oza. Valentina Rodriguez was the audio engineer.
veryGood! (83164)
Related
- Trump is likely to name a loyalist as Pentagon chief after tumultuous first term
- North Korean IT workers in US sent millions to fund weapons program, officials say
- Refugee children’s education in Rwanda under threat because of reduced UN funding
- Schools across U.S. join growing no-phone movement to boost focus, mental health
- Why Dolly Parton Is a Fan of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's Little Love Affair
- A Palestinian engineer who returned to Gaza City after fleeing south is killed in an airstrike
- Biden, others, welcome the release of an American mother and daughter held hostage by Hamas
- University of Virginia says campus shooting investigation finished, findings to be released later
- The Bachelorette's Desiree Hartsock Gives Birth, Welcomes Baby No. 3 With Chris Siegfried
- DeSantis allies ask Florida judge to throw out Disney’s counterclaims in lawsuit
Ranking
- Disease could kill most of the ‘ohi‘a forests on Hawaii’s Big Island within 20 years
- UN nuclear agency team watches Japanese lab workers prepare fish samples from damaged nuclear plant
- Air France pilot falls off cliff to his death while hiking California’s towering Mount Whitney
- University of Georgia student dies after falling 90 feet while mountain climbing
- Wildfire map: Thousands of acres burn near New Jersey-New York border; 1 firefighter dead
- Feds Approve Expansion of Northwestern Gas Pipeline Despite Strong Opposition Over Its Threat to Climate Goals
- Natalee Holloway fought like hell moments before death, her mom says after Joran van der Sloot's murder confession
- Doxxing campaign against pro-Palestinian college students ramps up
Recommendation
-
Disruptions to Amtrak service continue after fire near tracks in New York City
-
Five NFL players who need a change of scenery as trade deadline approaches
-
Costco hotdogs, rotisserie chicken, self-checkout: What changed under exiting CEO Jelinek
-
Belgian minister quits after ‘monumental error’ let Tunisian shooter slip through extradition net
-
Whoopi Goldberg Shares Very Relatable Reason She's Remained on The View
-
All-time leading international scorer Christine Sinclair retires from Team Canada
-
In Lebanon, thousands are displaced from border towns by clashes, stretching state resources
-
Influencer Nelly Toledo Shares Leather Weather Favorites From Amazon