Multiple 'Marble-Like Objects' Found Inside Teenager's Abdomen, Doctors Baffled

In a shocking case, multiple “marble-like objects” were found inside a teenage boy's stomach. The incident came to light when the boy, suffering from abdomen pain, went to see doctors at a hospital.

Details about the case were recently posted on the international medical journal Annals of Emergency Medicine. According to the report, after the teenager approached the doctors for his stomach pain, he was asked to undergo an abdominal ultrasound. Doctors were confident that the teen was suffering from acute appendicitis.

However, the abdominal ultrasound report shocked them as the scan showed “multiple marble-like objects” on the boy’s abdomen.

“Abdominal computed tomography (CT) showed an engorged appendix, which confirmed the diagnosis of acute appendicitis,” researchers wrote. “The CT imaging also incidentally revealed multiple small round hyperdensities in the distended stomach.”

The teenager later told doctors that he had consumed bubble tea the night before he came to the hospital complaining of abdominal pain. It was later revealed that the “marble-like objects” were actually tapioca pearls.

“To our knowledge, there is no literature describing an ultrasonographic finding of tapioca pearls,” researchers said.

The report in journal concluded that the reason for the abdomen pain was acute appendicitis, adding that the presence of the tapioca pearls were unrelated.

It was not mentioned when and where the incident took place.

Last year in China, a group of doctors removed 123 magnetic beads from a 5-year-old boy's stomach after he swallowed them, while his parents were not with him. Reports at the time said that the boy was watching television when he picked up the beads lying beside him and swallowed them. The boy then began to choke on the beads and his 12-year-old sister gave him water to drink.

The parents arrived home when the sister informed them about what happened. When asked about what happened, the boy said he had swallowed just one bead. Later at the hospital it was revealed that he had 123 beads inside his stomach.