How much is a quarter worth? Or why you shouldn't put coins in your mouth.

Yesterday my sons went swimming at the community pool. At 5 pm I got a call from the EMT's. My oldest son had swallowed a quarter and was in a lot of pain. My wife and I rushed to the pool and found my son surrounded by firemen, EMT's, lifeguards and some friends.

My boys and their friends were playing with some coins in the pool, they were diving for coins. My oldest boys got the not so bright idea to put a quarter in his mouth instead of in his pocket on his swimming suit because he thought it would fall out of his pocket. When he surfaced he took a deep breath and the coin went down his throat. He wasn't having any trouble breathing but he was in a lot of pain. We took him the the nearest emergency room. They x-rayed him and discovered that the quarter was lodged halfway down his esophagus. His esophagus was spasiming trying to get the quarter to move down but the quarter couldn't move down to his stomach. They transferred us to another hospital that could handle pediatric patients. They tried a regimen of drugs that would help the esophagus relax and help the quarter to move down. None of them worked. They were also giving him morphine for the pain. After another round of x-rays they determined that the coin hadn't moved at all, it was really stuck. At 6 am this morning they operated on my son to get the coin out. Basically they sedated him, went in through his mouth and pulled the quarter out. He was discharged at 3 pm today and we came home.

Other then a sore throat he's fine and he can only eat soft food until tomorrow at noon.

If the coin would have gone down his trachea this story might not have a happy ending.

The moral of the story is don't put anything in your mouth that you can't eat.

Yikes! I'm glad your boy is OK. I bet that trip to the doc cost more than a quarter.

Remember this guy?

This happened to me one time I was twelve or thirteen. Wasn't swimming though. My parents werent home at the time and I didn't know what to do, so I just drank water until I threw up. Worked fine!

As an adult I can laugh at that. When I was a kid (8-9), and I swear I don't know how, I ended up with a coffee bean in my ear. Waayyy in my ear, they tried flushing it out and scraping at it and I finally had to be put under and they went and fished it out. I can remember my mother asking for months "how you get a coffee bean in your ear?", still honestly can't answer that but I can understand!

Jay

One of our family stories was my sister's trip to the hospital for the same reason when she was 8...riding her bike in a swimsuit (hence no pockets) with her snack money in her mouth. Crashed and swallowed the coin. My grandmother was most horrified that anyone would put something as filthy as money in her mouth!

I never put money in my mouth as a kid because of that!

My son is eating solid food today and acting as if nothing happened, with the notable exception that his entire torso hurts. He was spasming for so long that his torso got a super work out and now he is really sore.

Wow, rough experience. Glad it ended well!

Sullybob said:

My son is eating solid food today and acting as if nothing happened, with the notable exception that his entire torso hurts. He was spasming for so long that his torso got a super work out and now he is really sore.

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Well then he will not forget it soon! Glad he's ok, and glad it left him with a temporary reminder! He'll be telling other people not to do that!

I swallowed a nickel once when I was real young. Now, fast forward several decades...

Right before a colonoscopy procedure began, I told the guy who was going to perform it that if he found the nickel I wanted it back. That was when they gave me the sedative. When I saw the doctor after the procedure, I asked him about the nickel. He responded saying that he didn't find it because depreciation reduced it to nothing.

Same doctor months later. I reminded him again about the nickel. He chuckled, and recalled a patient who had swallowed two silver dollars. The old kind, that are really large. They managed to get down into his gut and block it, resulting in surgery.

The moral of these two stories? It doesn't make cents to swallow money.

You're punny Jon!

I am glad to hear that your son is ok. At least niow you will have a funny story to tell his dates!

My parents told us a story one time about how my sister swallowed a penny when she was still dripping snot.
They had to "inspect" her diapers for a few days until they confirmed that it had passed.

Glad to hear your son is ok.
Make a copy of the medical bills and keep the quarter with it, your grandkids will love it.

BrianL said:

Glad to hear your son is ok.
Make a copy of the medical bills and keep the quarter with it, your grandkids will love it.

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That's a perfect idea. I was thinking that we should make the quarter into a necklace for my son.

Glad he's ok, reminds me of a line from Grumpy Old Men. After the little girl swallowed a quarter, Burgess Meredith said something along the lines of

"if she craps out a nickel and two dimes, then you can start worrying"

Sullybob said:

That's a perfect idea. I was thinking that we should make the quarter into a necklace for my son.

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A charm for your wife's charm bracelet?

The most important thing is he's ok . Get well soon bud!

Sullybob said:

... At 6 am this morning they operated on my son to get the coin out. Basically they sedated him, went in through his mouth and pulled the quarter out. ...

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Second most painfull way for the coin to come out.

My son did this with a 20 cent coin a few years back.Xray didnt show anything at the time,but a week later it passed,much to his satisfaction.Needless to say he never did it again.

I'm glad to hear that everything worked out OK. I think that it's a good idea to save the coin too. When your kids are older, this will be a great story to bring out every now and then!