It was an ordinary afternoon in the Fiore family home. It was a warm spring day, so they decided to start barbecuing and eating burgers.
But the day would quickly turn into a nightmare.
The worst part was their young son Anthony being most affected by an incident more common than you might think.
Anthony was about to take a bite of his burger when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his throat. A few seconds later, he was writhing in pain – telling his parents he felt like there was a sharp knife in his stomach.
His parents rushed him to the emergency room. The pain was getting worse.
The hospital immediately took Anthony for a CT scan. They then discovered a small metal wire trapped in the boy’s throat. Doctors suspected it was a piece of the type of metal brushes usually used to clean grills.
Anthony was immediately taken to the operating room and the sharp metal wire was removed – revealing it was a brush from the BBQ grill brush.
The operation went well, but Anthony was not completely recovered yet. The dirty piece of wire had left bacteria in the wound in his stomach and a few days later, he got an infection. After taking antibiotics, Anthony was finally well enough to return home.
The first thing Anthony’s parents did was throw away their grill brush.
According to doctors, this was not an isolated case. Sharp bristles often fall off while cleaning the grill – and in worse scenarios, they can get stuck on the grill and then be transferred to the food.
Aziz Benbrahim, a surgeon at MidState Medical Center, Connecticut, USA, says he often sees this type of accident, some cases more serious than others.
“Nobody knows the statistics, that’s the problem. The only published article talks about 6 or 7 cases and I believe it is much, much more common,” he tells CBS News.
How to clean the grill without a steel brush? Discover a safer way in the video below. Close the lid and heat the grill thoroughly to melt any leftover food residue. Then take a piece of aluminum foil shaped into a ball and scrub the grill. This will remove the soot just as effectively as a brush – without the risk of leaving behind sharp pieces of steel.
I had no idea these brushes could be so dangerous! With barbecue season approaching quickly, let’s spread the warning from this doctor.
