Fork removed from elderly man's penis

Doctors in Canberra, Australia removed a 10-centimetre fork from inside an elderly man's penis after a sexual mishap. The 70-year-old arrived at the Canberra Hospital emergency department with a bleeding sexual organ.



He told doctors he had inserted the 10cm dining fork into his urethra almost 12 hours earlier in an attempt to achieve sexual gratification. But the utensil became stuck. The fork was not visible but doctors were able to feel it from the outside and X-rays showed its position.

Doctors considered several retrieval options before deciding to pull the fork free using forceps and "copious lubrication" while the patient was under a general anaesthetic. The elderly patient was then sent home.



The medical emergency was so rare the team of three doctors published the case in The International Journal of Surgery last month. The paper, titled "An Unusual Urethral Foreign Body", said it was rare to see objects lodged in the lower urinary tract. Doctors said the motives for inserting objects into the sensitive region were difficult to comprehend.