'Going to be quite the scar': Ingested barbecue brush bristle lands man in emergency surgery

When Peter Kirkegaard was violently ill for days last week and doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with him, his wife urged them to perform a CT scan.

The results showed a small, slim object pinned in the 60-year-old's small intestine. It was a single wire bristle from a barbecue brush.

"If it wasn't for my wife, who knows?" Kirkegaard told the Calgary Eyeopener this week, explaining he believes the metal sliver could have killed him. 

The former Calgarian is currently recovering at his home in Terrace, B.C., where he's lived for the last decade. He wants others to toss their metal wire brushes and know other options are available. 

"Just don't use those metal things," he said. 

Thought it was food poisoning

Kirkegaard's ordeal began after he ate some grilled moose at a barbecue. The next day, June 2, he felt as though he had food poisoning, although none of his friends at the barbecue got sick.  

After three days of vomiting and diarrhea, he went to the hospital. Doctors suspected it was a virus and sent him home with nausea pills. 

But the pills didn't help. Kirkegaard still couldn't keep food down, so he went back to the hospital two days later.

Doctors performed blood work, but didn't see any cause for concern. Again, they gave Kirkegaard pills and sent him home. 

A third trip to the hospital had his wife, Tabatha, adamant that a CT scan needed to be done. Although reluctant, doctors heeded her advice, and they immediately noticed something in Kirkegaard's small intestine. 

"It was actually up against my pancreas, well on its way to doing more damage," Kirkegaard said. 

Doctors first attempted to take out the broken bit of wire through Kirkegaard's mouth, but it was a no-go. The only option was to cut him open. 

The emergency surgery operation left Kirkegaard with 22 staples down the middle of his abdomen. 

"It's going to be quite the scar," Kirkegaard said. "But I'm no spring chicken, so whatever." 

Kirkegaard had planned to celebrate his 60th birthday last weekend, but he had to cancel the party to recover. 

When his friends learned what landed him on the operating table, dozens responded by throwing away their own metal wire brushes. Some sent Kirkegaard videos of them tossing the tools in the trash. 

Kirkegaard says he won't eat at a barbecue again without knowing whether or not a wire brush is used to clean the grill.

"Not a chance," he said. 

Recently updated safety standards 

In 2020, Canada set national safety standards for barbecue grill brushes. The criterion required a warning label on metal bristle brushes and testing to reduce the risk of wires becoming detached and accidentally ingested. 

The standard was issued after Health Canada received dozens of reports to its Consumer Product Safety Program, with nearly 50 involving wire brush injuries between 2014 and 2020.

Six of those injuries involved wire bristles in a person's intestines, as happened to Kirkegaard. About half of the injuries were the result of bristles in a person's mouth or throat. 

While the reported injuries had led some to call for a ban on wire brushes, Health Canada decided against such an approach. 

Instead, the federal regulator consulted with the Retail Council of Canada and other groups to come up with the standard.

Other options

Beverly Smith, the manager at Barbecues Galore in north Calgary, said her location sells a number of metal wire brushes, although the store stocked more in the past. 

"There's a little bit less assortment of those metal brushes now, and they've switched to a few safer designs," she said. 

While Smith said it's possible for bristles to fall off brushes the store sells, she said Barbecues Galore stocks them because they do a better job of properly cleaning grills than other tools.

Still, she noted that there's been an increase in the number of alternatives. These include nylon brushes, plant-fibre brushes, wood paddle scrapers, and stainless steel coils.