A prankster begged doctors to remove a pair of spectacle arms four years after he swallowed them for a bed on a drunken night out.
The man, who lives in Shanghai, China, avoided speaking to medics earlier as he was too embarrassed.
But in the end the arms, which had become trapped in his digestive system, caused so much pain he had no choice but to seek help.
Incredibly, the glasses arms were not discovered on any earlier trips to hospital.
It was only when he was sent to a specialist that they spotted foreign bodies in the man's abdomen.
The patient, identified only by the surname Mr Li, whose age was not given but who is still reportedly a young man, admitted that he had swallowed the legs of the pair of glasses four years ago in a bet.
He said: "I also had an abdominal CT scan before, but the report did not say that there was a foreign body."
Because of the length of time in the body, the surgeons were unsure if they could remove it without surgery.
In the end decided to send him to Zhongshan Hospital to Professor Zhou Pinghong who is a specialist in removing foreign objects from the body without surgical intervention.
He is also the director of the Endoscopy Center of Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated with Fudan University and after studying the images decided to carry out the operation immediately.
He said that one of the arms had become embedded in the duodenum, which is the first section of the small intestine and the other had become lodged at the end of the duodenum.
He said: "Fortunately there was no obvious perforation and bleeding.
"Once the wall is perforated, the patient will face risks such as bleeding and infection.
"The only intervention is open surgery."
The non-invasive operation was successful and it reportedly only took 15 minutes to complete the removal of the two arms.
Earlier this week, we reported how a single mum of two was left fearing for her life after she was rushed in for emergency surgery after swallowing a huge six-inch Covid swab.
Mum-of-two Bobby Lee, 31, had gulped down a whopping six-inch coronavirus swab during a home test last month.
Deciding to do a test after feeling worse for wear following her night shift, the medical tool got stuck in her throat.
Unsure what to do, care worker Bobby then tried to swallow the swab - but it only went half-way down.
Worried sick, she raced to A&E from her home in Peterlee, Co. Durham - where doctors said they had never seen such a case like this before.
With doctors fearing for her, she was quickly transferred to a nearby hospital and, after emergency surgery, she is now on the road to recovery.
