In a freak accident, a 29-year-old woman in the UK had to undergo an emergency surgery after a dentist accidentally dropped a 3-cm long pin file into her mouth during root canal treatment following which she started to choke.
Vanessa Snary, a former help desk manager in Bristol, England was under anaesthetic to numb her gums so she did not feel it into her mouth while in the dentist's chair.
She quickly started to choke as the sharp tool slipped down her throat.
Snary said dentist Ester Torrejimeno did not dial 999 and insisted on driving her to hospital. She had emergency surgery last week after X-rays disclosed the tool had perforated her stomach, the Daily Express reported.
Her voice box was also damaged and she was unable to speak for nearly a week. To cap it all, she says she lost her job due to taking time off work.
She is now faced with the "traumatic" prospect of more root canal treatment to finish the work started by the dentist.
"It all happened very quickly and it was extremely frightening. I didn't know what I had swallowed until she showed me, which is when panic set in," Snary said.
"About five or six members of staff were called into the room - dental nurses, dentists, reception staff - but no ambulance was called.
"It was a freak accident that should not have happened and it was not dealt with in the right way either," she said.
Doctors administered a cocktail of drugs to ease the pain before performing surgery the following day to remove the file.
As she recovered after the operation she got a call from her employer's human resources department saying her contract was terminated because she had taken too much sick leave.
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