A woman has claimed that a BBQ almost killed her as wire bristle 'skewered' her throat after swallowing it.
Jessica Doster, who hails from Indiana in the US, has opened up about the traumatic ordeal which left her thinking she was 'going to die'.
The 35-year-old imm immediately knew something wasn't right mere moments after eating a chicken shish kebab during a barbecue at a friend's house.
However, she brushed it off at the time thinking it was simply just a stuck piece of food that left her gasping for air.
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But, when the pain got worse, Jessica visited the emergency room that evening with medics telling her she had most likely 'scratched her throat'.
Following the incident, which she was unaware of at the time, Jessica was barely able to breathe or swallow whole foods - shedding six pounds in less than a week due to the foreign object that was secretly lurking in her throat.
Recalling that fateful day, Jessica said: "I took a couple of bites [of my shish kebab] and immediately knew something was wrong.
"I thought I had something caught in my throat. There was a lot of pressure at the bottom of my neck.
"I immediately had to stop eating. I couldn't swallow. I could take sips of water and whisper words out. I knew something was very wrong.
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"Now we know that nerve was puncturing my oesophagus. I couldn't eat solid foods. I was getting excruciating back pain radiating down my back. I was now gasping for air as I was breathing."
She continued to reveal: "I was scared I was going to die in my sleep. I went home from the hospital and the pain was unbearable.
"I thought I was going to die. I was able to see an ENT doctor as an emergency case and they couldn't see anything, I immediately started crying.
"I had lost a significant amount of weight at this point. I hadn't eaten in six days - I couldn't even eat jelly. I could only drink broth or water."
After explaining that her pain began after eating chicken off the grill, an ENT specialist told the stepmum-of-one she had most likely swallowed a wire from a BBQ cleaning brush.
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An x-ray and CT scan confirmed the doctor's suspicion, but medics opted not to take on the risky procedure to remove the one-inch metal wire for eight months as it had punctured through Jessica's esophagus.
A four-hour procedure to retrieve the wire was unsuccessful and left Jessica unable to speak for 28 days.
"When I went back for my post-op appointment, I was told they were going to leave it in my throat," she explained.
"He said people live with shrapnel in their bodies all the time and my body will adapt to it.
"No surgeon wanted to go back in there. My vocal chords were so damaged from the operation, they thought I was going to paralyse my vocal chords if I had another surgery."
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After six months of living with the wire in her throat, Jessica began experiencing pain in her throat once again and opted to undergo another surgery in January 2020 despite a 'high probability' of failure.
"The doctor said I was lucky to be alive because the wire was actually up against my carotid artery at this point," she shared.
"It was a huge relief when they found it and got it out. It was actually 2cm long - it was nearly the size of a sewing needle."
Now, five years on from the incident, the healthcare administrator is still suffering the effects of what happened - and is calling for all wire brushes to be removed from the shelves.
Jessica, who still has a raspy voice from swallowing the cleaning brush wire, has had to fork out a staggering $12,000 in medical bills to pay for all her treatment.
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Jessica said: "I'm so worried this could happen to kids and they can't explain what's happening to them. This isn't as uncommon as people think it is. It is a freak accident but there are stories worse than mine.
"Thankfully all my friends and family got rid of all their wire brushes after what happened to me. I don't understand how they're still able to be sold in stores.
"They're very dangerous and they should absolutely be banned. There are other options to clean your grill than this wire brush. If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone."
Rhiannon Ingle