Doctors warn: ‘This drinking game is life-threatening!’
Nurses at UMCG have had to fish a beer bottle cap out of the oesophagus of three young people in recent weeks. The result of a new drinking game, and the nurses warn: don’t do it, it’s life-threatening!
Having a beer is fun, and drinking games that involve drinking beer are even more fun. But the drinking game invented by young people in the eastern part of the country is quite risky. They try to throw beer bottle caps into each other’s glasses, and if they succeed, the loser has to down the beer in one go. Think about it, guys: of course that beer cap goes down too. And that’s not good, because a crown cap has sharp edges. In recent weeks, several young people have already reported to the emergency department with a beer cap in their throats, which endoscopy nurses then had to fish out.
Via the natural route?
Using a special device that looks as though it could also be used to unclog a sink, they enter the oesophagus through the mouth and throat to grab the offending cap and fish it out through the mouth. Not a pleasant experience. Can’t the cap simply stay put and come out via the natural route? Preferably not, because a crown cap has sharp edges, so it could damage all kinds of things along the way. Moreover, the cap could remain stuck in the oesophagus or stomach. That’s why the nurses warn: don’t play this drinking game anymore, because it quite often goes wrong.
Ping-pong ball is better
The University Medical Center Groningen had already seen a few beer-cap cases in recent weeks, and the hospital in Twente also noticed that some rather dazed-looking young men were arriving at the emergency department. Via social media, the hospitals are calling on people to stop: don’t do it anymore. Beer pong is safer, say the nurses, because you’re not likely to swallow a ping-pong ball so quickly.
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Source: NOS.nl, photo: UMCG
