A 64-year-old man in eastern China discovered that he had left a toothbrush inside his intestine for 52 years. He came to know about it after he started experiencing strange sensations in his stomach. The man indentified by his surname Yang, is from Anhui province. 

In an examination conducted by doctors he discovered that there was a 17 cm object tangled in a section of his small intestine. Surgeons removed it through an 80-minute endoscopic procedure. 

Yang told doctors that he accidentally swallowed the toothbrush when he was 12 years old but was too afraid to tell his parents. Believing the brush would dissolve naturally, he never sought medical help and had felt no serious discomfort ever.