Woman swallows butter knife

ATLANTA, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- A 30-year-old Atlanta woman is OK after accidentally swallowing a butter knife, doctors said.

The woman was apparently demonstrating to a friend that she no longer had a gag reflex because of her history with bulimia, the New York Daily News reported.

During her exhibition, she laughed and accidentally swallowed the knife, New England Journal of Medicine said. She was rushed to the hospital where doctors performed a surgery to remove the knife from her body.

Drs. Aida Venado and Sarah Prebil said doctors were able to remove the knife without damaging the woman's throat or stomach.

However, her husband later revealed the woman had swallowed a knife four years ago and she was then transferred to a psychiatric unit, the doctors said.

The Los Angeles Times reported that most instances of people swallowing foreign objects are not life-threatening, citing an Emedicine.com article.

"After reaching the stomach, a foreign body has greater than a 90 percent chance of passage," the article states.

Although, the article said there are about 1,500 deaths a year from ingesting foreign bodies.