A 29-year-old man known only as Yan got more than a hangover souvenir from a booze-fuelled night in Thailand this past January. He ended up swallowing a 15‐cm ceramic coffee spoon—quite literally—with zero memory of the incident .

Fast‐forward nearly six months: Yan was back in Shanghai fretting that he might have eaten plastic along with some questionable take‐out. But what showed up in his duodenum wasn’t plastic at all—it was that same spoon, lodged precariously in his upper small intestine.

Doctors at Zhongshan Hospital label the find “highly dangerous.”

Thankfully, Yan hadn’t burst anything open—despite never missing a gym session and chalking up stomach pain to over‐eating.

On June 18, an endoscopy team led by Dr. Zhou Hongping attempted a cinematic retrieval. After a failed snare attempt, they switched to a two‐forceps technique — eventually maneuvering the spoon into Yan’s stomach and finally pulling it out during a 90‐minute procedure. Yan was discharged in good health, reportedly breathing a huge sigh of relief: “I thought it was a dream,”

Of note: This isn’t the first time China has unearthed bizarre ingestion souvenirs—earlier this month, doctors removed a 17‐cm toothbrush that had been riding around in a 64‐year‐old’s gut for over five decades.