Grilled spare ribs – ended up in the emergency room

Henrik Kugelberg, 56, was looking forward to a weekend alone in the forest.

Sitting and carving sticks, grilling meat and having a good time.

But the cozy weekend almost cost him his life.

– I think of my children who could have lost their father, it’s not exactly a big deal.

In early June, Henrik Kugelberg went to a cabin in the forest outside Örebro to relax, something Aftonbladet was the first to report.

– I wanted to sit and take it easy for myself. Just carve on a stick, he says.

In the evening it was time to grill. He set up the grill, cleaned the grates with the grill brush and lit the coals. He put a big load of spare ribs on the grate. The meat would last for two days.

– I was hungry and that’s what happened. It was delicious.

A few days later, Henrik had a doctor’s appointment. There, he took a blood test, which showed that he had an elevated SR value, a sign of inflammation or infection in the body.

– But I didn’t think much about it. The doctor didn’t seem worried either.

Burning and stabbing in the stomach – “had a terrible pain”

 It wasn’t until a couple of weeks later that he started having stomach pains. 

– It was a burning sensation, which felt a bit like gastritis.

Henrik called the health service for advice. He was asked to go in immediately, but chose to wait.

– But then it just got worse. I had a terrible pain. I woke up at night with a stabbing pain in my stomach.

Something small was stuck in the intestine

The next day he went to the emergency room. He was examined and X-rayed right away.

– On the X-rays, the doctor found a needle-shaped thing stuck in the wall of my small intestine.

The doctor couldn’t determine what was in the pictures, and asked Henrik what he might have eaten recently.

– Fish with bones? She wondered if I could have swallowed a toothpick. But we couldn’t come up with anything reasonable that could explain that thing in my stomach.

The doctor decided to enter the stomach with keyhole surgery. Luckily, she got to the object right away and was able to remove it.

The barbecue evening was behind

It turned out to be a thin metal wire. After much thought, Henrik concluded that it must have fallen off the grill brush and landed in the meat he was grilling in the country.

– It wasn’t something I could have guessed would happen.

At first, Henrik thought of the incident as a funny thing. But now, a few days after he got home from the hospital, it hits him what could have happened.

The metal wire in his stomach had lodged in the side and made a hole in his intestine, but at the same time covered the hole. If the intestine had ruptured and started leaking, he could have suffered from sepsis, he says.

– I was damn lucky there. I’m starting to get a little shaky from this now in retrospect. I think about my children who could have lost their dad, it’s not exactly a big deal.

 – You should be glad you’re not dead. Simply enjoy life. 

Henrik will no longer use grill brushes with metal bristles.

– I won’t touch them. I’ve thrown them all away.

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