An 18-year-old boy had to undergo urgent surgery after his curiosity led him to stuff 25 metal beads in his genitals that travelled up and got stuck in his bladder.
The teen, not named in local media, was rushed to hospital in Changsha, in Hunan Province, southern China, after experiencing pain and bleeding while urinating.
The unusual symptoms came after the boy had curiously stuffed a magnetic bead into his urethra.
After realising he could not get it out, however, he decided to insert another in hopes of being able to pull out the first one using its magnetic force.
But when that did not work, the boy kept adding more and more hoping the next one would pull all the previous ones out until he ended up stuffing more than 20 beads inside his genitalia.
He decided to confess the situation to his parents and they immediately took him to hospital.
A CT scan reportedly revealed there were a total of 25 magnetic beads connected into a string that had moved up his urethra and were stuck in his bladder.
Dr Song Wei from the Department of Urology of Hunan Provincial People’s Hospital and a team of specialists were able to formulate a detailed plan for a minimally invasive procedure to avoid doing an open surgery that would take a long time to heal.
They carried out the operation on 20th July and were successful in removing all the beads.
Images taken during the procedure show doctors extracting the beads that have jointly formed a necklace using specialist tools.
One picture appears to show a surgeon having some fun with the beaded necklace and using it to pull up metal forceps.
Following the operation, the teen has been sent home and is expected to make a speedy recovery.
Speaking of the case, Dr Song said: “Adolescents tend to be curious about physical changes brought about by secondary sexual characteristics, so foreign bodies in the bladder are not uncommon in clinical practice.
“These foreign bodies are various, including glue sticks, toothpicks, screw caps, eyebrow pliers, etc.”
He added that these foreign object will often make their way into the bladder, causing a series of symptoms such as frequent and painful urination and hematuria.
In severe cases, they can even penetrate the bladder and damage the intestinal tract, which could potentially be life-threatening.
Song Wei reminded both schools and families to give adolescents proper sex education and guide children to better understand their own bodies and needs to avoid unwanted situations.
