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His barbecue tried to kill him!

July 10, 2012 @ 11:11 am (Updated: 12:49 pm - 7/10/12 )

bbqOk, maybe it didn't actually try to kill him, but when Adam Wojtanowicz woke up with a serious stomach ache after throwing a barbeque and bachelor party, he chalked it up to a night of excess. Turns out the pain was from too much heavy metal. Not the music, but a steel bristle from his barbeque brush.

In an interview with Ross and Burbank, the Tacoma man says the pain went away after a few days, but came roaring back a few weeks later.

"It got to the point where I couldn't walk. I felt like an old man hunched over and then the pain got too intense," he says.

Doctors first chalked it up to an intestinal disorder, gave him some meds and sent him home. Two days later, the pain became unbearable. A CAT scan revealed a sharp metal shard was lodged in his intestine.

"We brainstormed for like an hour and then the surgeon walked in and said 'I know what it is.' It was a bristle from a barbeque brush," he says.

Wojtanowicz traced it back to the bachelor party. But he doesn't know how it ended up in his steak and then his stomach.

"It must have stuck somehow on the grill and then when I threw my steak on there the next time, it just stuck onto the steak or something." And it somehow ended up in the perfect position to go undetected as he swallowed it.

Wojtanowicz is recovering from surgery he had last week to remove the bristle and repair his intestine. He's limited to a liquid diet for the time being, but plans to hit the grill again when he's better...with a couple of caveats.

"I think I'll probably get a new barbeque, change out my brush and chew 20 times before I swallow every bite from now on like my mom used to tell me to do when I was 5," he laughs.

For argument's sake: What is the difference between grilling and barbequing?

"I always say grilling is an art, barbeque is a religion," explained Tom Douglas, host of 97.3 KIRO FM's Seattle Kitchen. With barbequing, Douglas said, "You put the lid on and you let it go, and you trust. You have faith that the fire and the smokes are doing their jobs."

For grilling, he said it's more wham-bam, "It's much more of having the right sear, and getting it hot, and the right fire level."

Listen to Tom Douglas and Thierry Rautureau's grilling secrets. Seattle Kitchen can be heard on 97.3 KIRO FM on Saturdays at 2pm-4pm and Sundays at 10am-noon or anytime at KIRO Radio.

MyNorthwest recommends BBQ side dishes

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Comments (3)


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  • ron prevost wrote...
    Ok, Ok, so everybody thinks this is a story.
    July 10, 2012 12:45 pm
    SIX, did you hear SIX, I said SIX killer bristles this summer alone - IN AMERICA. Did I say SIX? The horror. The humanity.

    OK, I think maybe one guy dies. And how many BBQs have there been since, say, even Memorial Day? ... But none the less a danger worthy of warning all.

    Perhaps, even as we speak, Michael Bloomberg, our Lord Protector, is banning wire brushed in New York. And can McGinn be far behind? America MUST be saved - because not even ObamaCare will cover this one.

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  • kata wrote...
    oh brother...
    July 10, 2012 3:41 pm
    Seriously, if a foreign power wanted to do in half of America it would go far in the attempt just going about removing "warning labels".
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