Seriously: Stop Holding Pins Between Your Lips
It’s prom night. You’ve got the perfect dress, the perfect date, and the perfect hashtag to accompany your Instagrams (#Prom2k16!!!). What could possibly go wrong?
Lots, as teen Kathleen Garvey recently discovered. Garvey, a senior at Wellesley High School in Massachusetts, was headed to prom with her boyfriend, Colin Emerson, who kept fiddling with his boutonniere. She tried to adjust it, presumably by holding the floral piece’s pin between her lips, as people often do. But at the same moment, Emerson cracked a joke — causing Garvey to laugh, and — GULP! — swallow the pin.
Since she experienced no acute pain and only a slight cough, Garvey went on to enjoy her prom without incident. But the following day, she went to the hospital to get an x-ray just in case.
And that’s when they saw it: The pin from Emerson’s white rose boutonniere, lodged in Garvey’s bronchial tube. Thankfully, doctors were able to retrieve the nearly inch-and-a-half-long pin quickly with a relatively simple surgery.
As Garvey told CBS 4 Boston: “It went down my throat and down my trachea, and then there’s two bronchial tubes right before your lungs. So I knew exactly where it was and exactly how bad it could’ve been … I was freaking out, and I was so blessed to realize that it hadn’t hit my lung and it hadn’t punctured anything; it was just sort of sitting there.”
Her boyfriend was more succinct. “I just hope we all learn not to put sharp things in our mouths after this,” he said. One more lesson we hope Emerson has learned? Next time, maybe go with a pocket square.
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