A BORED student was taken to hospital after she yawned so hard during a boring lecture that her mouth got stuck wide open.
Holly Thompson,17, from Kingsthorpe, Northampton, was in a Government and Politics lecture at Northampton School for Girls when she expressed her level of interest in the usual way.
However, to her horror she opened her mouth so wide she dislocated her jaw, and was unable to close it again.
She attracted the attention of a friend who tried in vain to close her mouth before the teacher noticed, but only caused more pain.
Holly said: “I was so shocked, my expression probably said it all.
“I nudged my friend to show her what had happened but I was so embarrassed.
“When we realised we couldn’t close it, she had to tell the teacher. Everyone burst out laughing, it was awful.”
Although the condition looked amusing, doctors consider a broken jaw to be serious, as patients are in pain and can quickly become dehydrated as they cannot eat or drink properly.
After teachers were alerted, Holly was taken to the school nurse who tried everything from a hot water bottle under the chin to ice packs to try to free it.
When it showed no sign of improvement, she was taken to Northampton General Hospital where her jaw was eventually freed by forcing 26 wooden splints in her mouth.
The unusual method, performed by Dr Ejiro Obakponovwe, worked and opened the jaw enough to unlock it.
Miss Thompson said: “It was really bad at the hospital. I had to sit in the waiting room with a scarf over my mouth so nobody could see what had happened.
“It was really difficult to communicate with doctors as well and I thought they were just going to give me some medicine, not put splints in there.”
The episode was captured by the TV cameras of BBC Three series Bizarre ER, which screened her discomfort this week.
Miss Thompson said: “My friends keep coming up to me and asking how my jaw is and saying I’m famous.
“Its all over You Tube and I was mortified at first but I can see the funny side now.
“The American TV presenter Ryan Seacrest tweeted it too, which is great but I think I’d rather be famous for something else.”
