2-inch needle removed from teen's throat

BASINGSTOKE, England, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- A British teenager appeared to have an insect bite on her neck but doctors found the real problem -- a 2-inch sewing needle lodged in her throat.

Abbey Walsh, 16, went to North Hampshire Hospital in Basingstoke, England, with a pain in her neck and doctors told her the red mark was an insect bite, The Mirror reported Monday.

However, the pain did not subside and five days later Walsh went back to the hospital and the needle was discovered and removed in emergency surgery.

"I couldn't believe my eyes when the doctors showed me the X-ray," the teenager said. "I just froze thinking 'that needle is in my throat'. They told me they had no time to waste and had to operate there and then."

Walsh said the needle must have entered her neck when she collapsed in a sewing classroom at Hurst Community College.

"As I fell in class I felt a scratch on my neck but I was in such agony with my back I hardly felt the needle going in," she said.