ER doctor on why you should never use dangerous barbecue grill brushes with wire bristles

An emergency department doctor has issued a warning to parents about a common barbecue tool after she saw a four-year-old boy suffer a life-threatening injury caused by one.

The American doctor, known as Dr Beachgem online, said to be wary of barbecue brushes as the metal bristles can fall off and end up in your food.

She treated a young child with severe ear pain and a fever who stopped eating and drinking and it took 10 days of tests and scans before doctors discovered he had a wire from the brush lodged in this throat.

The boy was rushed to surgery and fully recovered but the doctor advised against cleaning your grill with the brushes as they can also cause bowel obstructions and perforations if accidentally swallowed.

An emergency room doctor known as Dr Beachgem (pictured) has warned against using barbecue brushes after she saw a child unwell with the metal bristles lodged in his throat

Dr Beachgem, who is a paediatric emergency medicine physician, said the case with the four-year-old was ‘the most interesting’ one she’s had to date.

The child was eating at a barbecue when he suddenly grabbed his ear crying and complaining of pain.

Wire bristles from barbecue grill brushes can cause serious throat or digestive injuries when ingested

He was brought to the emergency room where he had an ear test that looked completely normal so the parents were told to give him ibuprofen and go to an ear, nose and throat specialist in a couple of days.

‘A couple of days later went and saw ENT, they did a full exam and again there’s nothing, totally normal exam,’ Dr Beachgem said in the video.

The family was giving the child ibuprofen and numbing drops in his ears before they visited the emergency room again because his pain was not subsiding.

After more than week of tests and scans that came back normal, the boy was taken at to emergency room at 4:30 in the morning where he saw Dr Beachgem.

‘Now he’s having some fevers and he’s not wanting to eat and drink and we have no idea what’s going on with him,’ she said.

‘His ear exam was totally normal and he was still complaining of ear pain. On the throat exam he did have a little bit of swelling in the kind of tonsil or area on the right side and a little bit of tenderness on the neck on the right side also.’

The doctor said they did ‘a ton of labs’ and every test they could think of before a CAT scan revealed the problem.

‘He had about a 2cm metal wire that was lodged in the paratonsillar tissues on the right and it had started to develop an abscess around it,’ she said.

Why can barbecue grill brushes be dangerous?

Wire bristles from barbecue brushes can cause serious throat or digestive injuries when ingested.

Thousands of injuries have been reported from accidentally consuming the bristles around the world, including in Australia.

The metal bristles on barbecue brushes can become loose. Be aware of bristles falling out while cleaning barbecue grills with a wire brush. Check the plate and grills regularly for any loose wires. These detached bristles can get stuck to the grill, then wedged inside the food.

Australians are great lovers of a barbecue so it is strongly recommended to follow the tips below to help prevent injury to your friends and family.

If you use a wire brush:

buy quality product – check the bristles’ strength and see if you can pull one out with your fingers
inspect it regularly – if you see loose bristles or can pull any out, replace it
replace the brush as soon as you see it looks bent, damaged or filled with too much grease and dirt
check the grill for any bristles before use
examine your food before you eat it.

Source: Commerce WA

‘He had been eating a hamburger when this happened so the grill brush, the metal wires on the grill brush, had become lodged in the hamburger and when he ate the hamburger it got lodged in the soft tissues.

Dr Beachgem explained he would have been feeling pain in his ear as the wire and the abscess was near the Eustachian tube, which connects the ear to the nasal cavity and the back of the throat.

The child was taken to surgery where the wire was removed and his abscess was drained.

His pain has ‘completely resolved’, he was put on antibiotics and he made a full recovery.

After over a week of tests and scans, a CAT scan revealed the wire in the boy’s throat. He had accidentally eaten it when it got stuck in his burger that was cooked on the grill

‘Do not use grill brushes with metal wires, there’s not only the risk that it can get lodged in the soft tissue in your throat but they can also cause bowel obstructions and perforations in the abdomen if accidentally swallowed,’ the doctor warned.

‘They get mixed in the hamburger or the meat that’s being cooked on the grill.’

Dr Beachgem’s video quickly went viral with 17.3million views and many in the comments were thankful for the advice.

‘Ummmm who else is getting up and going to throw away their grill brush? Thank you for this story,’ one viewer said.

‘Wow! That’s crazy! I’m throwing my grill brush away,’ another wrote.

Others had heard of the risk before and one said they had their own nasty experience with a grill brush bristle.

‘I got a piece of metal wire from a grill brush stuck in my tonsil, it was so painful,’ they said.

‘I saw this on Mystery Diagnosis a long time ago and we’ve never used a grill brush since. Either a scrubby, or you can buy a grilled pumice,’ a second suggested.

Two ways to clean your grill without a metal barbecue brush

1. Aluminium foil

Crumple up aluminium foil into a ball that’s large enough to easily hold with a pair of tongs. Clasp the ball with your tongs and scrape away the grime.

Aluminium foil can leave tiny bits behind, so once finished, let the grill cool and use a wet cloth to wipe away the debris.

It’s best to clean the grill after you finish cooking, before any food residue has time to cool and stick.

If you didn’t clean the grates after your last BBQ and there are leftover bits of food, there’s an easy way to clean it off before you start cooking.

Turn on your grill and place a sheet of aluminium foil directly over the grates.
Close the grill lid.
Let the grill run for a few minutes until the grates get hot and the residue starts to loosen up.
Remove the foil sheets, then scrub the grates with a crumpled ball of foil.

2. Half an onion

When you’re finished cooking, cut an onion in half and put it on a grill fork, cut side down. Wipe the onion on the grill grates to loosen any stuck-on bits of food.

This method also works before you start grilling: turn on the grill and give it time to heat up. Once the grates are hot, wipe them down with the onion half.

When you’re finished cleaning the grate, just dispose of the onion half. Best of all, if you’re using a charcoal grill, you can just toss the onion directly on the charcoals to help flavour the food you’re about to cook.

Source: CNet

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