This day in history: Sherwood Anderson, an American writer, died of peritonitis after accidentally swallowing a toothpick on this day in 1941. Peritonitis is inflammation of the peritoneum, the thin layer of tissue covering the inside of your abdomen and most of its organs.
About 8,000 people are injured in the United States each year by toothpicks. According to a report in The World Journal of Surgery, "about half of the people who suck down a toothpick during a meal aren’t aware of what they’ve done, but about 10 percent of those who do end up dead. Once swallowed, toothpicks were found to cause gut perforation in 79 percent of all patients, and the slivers can even migrate to other parts of the body, from liver and kidney to lung. Inspired by the report, The New York Times tells the harrowing story of one young athlete nearly killed by the wood in his sandwich." Source
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