Gulp! Laughing Man Swallows Scissors

After eating a meal, a Chinese man was using a four-inch pair of nail scissors to clean his teeth when one of his friends cracked a joke. He couldn't help laughing -- and the scissors slid down his throat.

London's Daily Mail reports that Kong Lin, 27, tried to cough up the scissors, but the points got stuck in epiglottis, the thin flap of tissue that covers the windpipe during swallowing.

Lin was rushed to a hospital in Putian, China. Surgeons extracted the scissors in half an hour, but they couldn't use anything stronger than a local anesthetic, the Mail reported. Knocking him out completely would have relaxed his throat, allowing the scissors to move deeper.

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