An emergency department doctor has warned the public about the dangers of using metal-bristled barbecue brushes, following a case where a four-year-old boy suffered a life-threatening injury. The warning comes as temperatures rise across the UK, prompting more people to fire up their grills.
Paediatric emergency medicine physician Dr Beachgem recounted the case on TikTok, describing how the boy suddenly grabbed his ear and cried in pain while eating a hamburger at a barbecue. Despite multiple visits to the emergency room and various tests over nearly ten days, doctors initially failed to identify the cause. The child was given ibuprofen and numbing drops, but his pain persisted and he developed a fever.
Eventually, a CAT scan revealed a 2cm metal wire lodged in the paratonsillar tissues on the right side of his throat, which had caused an abscess. The wire had come from a grill brush, become embedded in the hamburger, and then lodged in the boy's soft tissues when he ate it. The pain in his ear was due to the wire and abscess pressing near the Eustachian tube. Surgeons successfully removed the wire and drained the abscess, and the boy recovered after antibiotics.
Dr Beachgem warned that ingesting wire bristles can also cause bowel obstructions and perforations in the abdomen. She cited another case where a woman in Connecticut required emergency surgery after eating a hamburger cooked on a grill cleaned with a wire brush. The Good Housekeeping Institute recommends using coil brushes without bristles or crumpled aluminium foil held with tongs as safer alternatives for cleaning grills.
