The man took a tablet of bleach instead of a pill for headaches and he almost destroyed his vocal chords

A man who tried to treat his headache with a painkiller was hospitalized unexpectedly for weeks when he accidentally swallowed a bleach tablet.

The 65-year-old man in Switzerland was suffering from a headache and was looking for a paracetamol tablet near the kitchen sink. But, confused by the pain, he mistakenly washed a 3.5-gram tablet of sodium hydroxide, which is corrosive to the esophagus and the stomach.

Immediately, his mouth and throat began to burn and he began to cough uncontrollably, bringing a portion of the tablet. He rushed to the hospital, and told the doctors that it was painful to swallow that his voice began to fade. Six hours later, his voice stopped working.

An image of the throat of the man showing his vocal cords disappearing. BMJ

Doctors discovered that the dangerous substance had begun to kill part of the throat where the vocal cords are positioned, and his voice box began to swell. Doctors pumped the man with steroids, and were forced to ride a tracheostomy to his throat to help him breathe.

A proton pump inhibitor drug has been used to reduce the levels of acid in his stomach. The patient was followed in intensive care for two weeks before being allowed to return home. Eventually, he was able to eat solid foods again.

"I was sleepy, my throat was sore and I could not really talk anymore," said the patient in the case study report.

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Illustrating the urgency of his condition, he said: "I remember that I needed to urinate but it was refused because it was not there. had no time.

"I have more memories of that moment and until I get out of [a] coma weeks later. "

The case study published in the BMJ is far from being an isolated case, but it is thought that it is one of the few examples of a person ingesting sodium hydroxide in tablet form, according to the authors.

No less than 5,000 cases of accidental and intentional ingestion of caustic substances are reported each year in the United States. Sodium hydroxide is one of the most common agents.

Because of its corrosive properties, sodium hydroxide is used in products such as drain cleaner, soaps and detergents. In the right concentrations, it can be powerful enough to dissolve a human body in just three hours.