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This Man's Terrifying Warning About Grill Brushes Is Going Viral

Photo credit: Courtesy of Chester Poole
Photo credit: Courtesy of Chester Poole

From Country Living

We've warned you before about the dangers of cleaning your grill with a wire brush, but one man's viral Facebook post serves as yet another scary reminder to replace yours ASAP, before it does some serious damage to you or your family.

"On Sunday evening upon eating a hamburger from our grill I felt something abnormal in my burger," Chester Poole, 63, of Nova Scotia captioned a rather unappetizing close-up of his throat. "I tried to spit it out and tried to cough up anything that may be there. Upon eating my second bite I felt a needle like pain in my throat."

After spending five hours in outpatient care, X-rays confirmed what Poole could feel: There was a foreign object stuck in his throat-what turned out to be an inch-long stray wire from Poole's barbecue grill brush. Poole was sent home for the night and referred to another hospital for surgery on Monday.

"Our brush is in good shape and I hardly use it," Poole wrote. "[My doctor] says he gave up his brushes 10 [years] ago because he sees this sort of thing a lot. The thing that was concerning was that he said a lot of times they cannot be found because they imbed themselves in the soft tissue of your throat and that you end up doing more damage by poking around trying to find it to remove. They end up leaving them there and you live with the discomfort. Every time I was swallowing it felt like a needle was in there. Not fun."

"The thing that bothered me was that if we had provided burgers to anyone else, especially our grandchildren, it would have been worse."

When Poole's doctor was able to remove the bristle, he told Poole to buy a lottery ticket. Lucky or not, Poole said he wouldn't wish the procedure on anyone.

"The thing that bothered me was that if we had provided burgers to anyone else, especially our grandchildren, it would have been worst [sic]," Poole wrote. "I do not believe a small child would have been able to go through the procedure to remove very easily at all."

Following the incident, Poole purchased replacement scrapers for himself and his kids. And he's learned that unfortunately, his experience was not a rare one.

"Since this has happened I have had many people indicate that they have found these in their food and fortunately they discovered it either visually or were able to spit it out before ingesting," Poole tells CountryLiving.com. "The outcome I had was a positive one. It could have resulted in more serious complications if not found or if it had found its way into my digestive track."

That's what happened to Cheryl Harrison: She had to undergo emergency surgery to remove a bristle from her intestine. So don't let it happen to you! Toss your wire and order one without bristles today: Brushtec is Good Housekeeping-approved, but you can also use crumpled aluminum foil and for a deep clean, Parker & Bailey BBQ Grill Cleaner and Degreaser.

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