Dental Drill Accident – Woman Swallowed Drill During Surgery
The recent dental drill accident that happened in Sweden had caused a woman to go through bronchoscopy operation to remove a drill she swallowed during her dental implant surgery.
The patient, a 60-year-old woman, was having dental implant surgery at Västmanland County Hospital in Västerås, in central Sweden.
During surgery, the drill came loose from the grip and fell into her mouth. She was quickly pulled into a sitting position, but it was too late.
“She tried to spit it out, and was made to cough, but she’d already swallowed,” the hospital’s medical chief Per Weitz told The Local.
As she was lying down when it happened, the woman swallowed reflexively, and the three-centimetre long drill was gone, he explained.
The woman was immediately taken to be x-rayed, which revealed that the drill had lodged in her right lung. An immediate bronchoscopy was performed to remove it.
“A pinky-sized tube was sent into her lung with a small camera and pliers to grab hold of the drill,” explained Weitz.
The patient was able to leave the hospital the day after her bronchoscopy, but did not recover fully for another month.
Västmanland County Hospital has introduced new routines to avoid similar accidents in future.