Local man faced long hospital ordeal after choking on barbecue bristle

SURREY (NEWS 1130) – Last month Health Canada announced it was conducting an investigation into the safety of wire-bristle brushes used to clean barbecues, with plans to end the probe by the end of the summer. And that can’t come soon enough for a local man who spent the long weekend in and out of emergency rooms across the region after swallowing a bristle at a friend’s barbecue.

(A close-up of the bristle)

Jordan Daniels, a producer on our sister stations KiSS RADIO, took his first bite of a burger when he felt something sharp, lodged in his throat. He ran to the bathroom and tried to make himself vomit. “Blood was coming out. I was spitting up blood. So I instantly freaked out.”

He immediately thought it may be a bristle from the barbecue brush.

Daniels went to the hospital in Langley around 6 p.m. on Sunday where he says he waited for 45 minutes and received some X-rays. “When that was over, I had to go back out and sit for another three and a half hours and the doctor came and saw me.”

At about midnight the doctor arrived and told Daniels nothing showed up on the X-ray and after examining his throat, made the same assessment. “He went on to tell me I have heartburn. He said take Zantac and come back in 48 hours if it hasn’t stopped.”

Daniels left and went to Surrey Memorial Hospital where he waited for another five hours. Eventually he gave up and went home to try and catch some sleep but it was still bothering him. When he woke up he went to two different walk-in clinics — one was in Langley and the other was in Surrey.

“They both said, ‘Oh, if the X-ray said there was nothing in there — there’s nothing in there.’ They both looked and didn’t see anything apparently. I was telling them I could feel it. I can put my finger down my throat and feel it. They rolled their eyes at me, I’m not going to lie.”

He says he felt he was being accused of lying and was told repeatedly “it would pass.”

Daniels returned home and getting some help from his mother, he went to the hospital in Abbotsford where he had a much more positive experience. He says a nurse and a doctor numbed him and got the bristle out with some tweezers in a couple of minutes.

“It’s the longest ordeal. I don’t know why it took so long. I don’t know why the doctors didn’t see it. I’m really shocked. Always question doctors. They can tell you one thing, but if you know something is in there, then be persistent.”

NEWS 1130 has reached out to the health authorities for comment.