In the U.K., a 40-year-old man recently had a plastic fork surgically removed from his stomach after swallowing it. That’s bad enough, but when you consider that he ingested the item a decade ago, the story reaches all new levels of weird. We’ll never look at cutlery the same way again.

Lee Gardner of Cudworth, Barnsley, was taken to the hospital this week after complaining of stomach pain and blood in his vomit. Much to their surprise, doctors discovered a nine-inch fork embedded in the lining of his stomach.

According to Gardner, he accidentally swallowed the fork 10 years ago and was told by doctors that it would naturally pass through his system. “The advice when I swallowed it from the doctor was that it would just pass through my system and as that was so many years before I really didn’’t think it could be the fork,” he said.

Obviously, it was. The prongs of the fork became stuck in Gardner’s stomach and gave him a painful bleeding ulcer. Fortunately, doctor’s were able to remove the offending silverware after a 45-minute operation. Gardner is expected to make a full recovery.

Although we’re glad to hear that Gardner is doing well, the story begs an obvious question — how does someone accidentally swallow an entire fork? Theories anyone?

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