英国男子牙缝里卡了爆米花，结果心脏需要做手术

A stray popcorn kernel nearly cost a 41-year-old UK man his life last year, by sparking a heart infection that required major surgery to fix.

去年一粒跑偏的爆米花仁差点要了英国一名41岁男子的命，他心脏被感染，需要大型手术才能修复。

His medical team believes that by attempting to remove the offending food item from his teeth with a variety of DIY dentistry items – including a tooth pick, a pen lid, a piece of wire, and a nail – firefighter Adam Martin gave himself an infection that damaged his heart valves.

消防员Adam Martin的主治医生们认为因为他用了各种自制剔牙工具，如牙签、笔盖、铁丝、指甲，试图从牙缝里抠出令他不舒服的食物残渣，导致心脏瓣膜被感染。

Two heavy-duty surgeries later, Martin is on the road to recovery with a new heart valve. But he and his wife want us all to take a lesson away from this story.

Martin接受了两次大型手术，换了新的心脏瓣膜，身体正在康复。但他和妻子想让我们所有人从他的事上吸取教训。

We've all been where he was. Chomping on popcorn by the handful, one tiny fragment worms its way into a crevice between molars. And so begin hours of tongue-swishing, finger-poking, tooth-brushing, mouthwash-swirling…

我们都遇到过他的情况。把一把爆米花塞嘴里嚼，小碎屑就会钻进磨牙的牙缝里。然后我们就得花几个小时用舌头舔、用手指抠、刷牙、用漱口水冲。

Unfortunately, it doesn't take much probing to open a capillary or two. Our gums are delicate tissues packed full of blood vessels just begging to be scratched open, giving pathogens an easy entrance to our body.

但不幸的是，毛细血管很容易受损。我们的牙龈是很娇嫩的组织，布满血管，被弄破以后病原体很容易侵入身体。

Consider that even the healthiest human mouth is home to at least 700 species of bacteria, many of which we know surprisingly little about. Introduce the foreign material that's attached to the business end of a nail or pen lid, and you're just asking for trouble.

想想看最健康的人类口腔里也会有至少700种细菌，我们对其中很多细菌所知甚少。再弄进来附着在钉子尖端或笔盖上的细菌，你简直就是在自找麻烦。

Most microscopic organisms that manage to get past our outer defences will still face an immune response. But those that can outwit a skirmish of white blood cells have an easy trip around the body's circulatory system.

大多数能成功穿过我们外层防御的微生物会遇到免疫反应，但那些能战胜白细胞的微生物很容易进入体内循环系统。