Surgeons who were treating a man initially thought to be suffering from food poisoning were amazed to find bizarre items in his stomach
Coins, Nails, And Shards Of Glass In Stomach
32-year-old Maksud Khan was admitted to the hospital after complaining of abdominal pains. Doctors decided to perform an endoscopy to determine the cause. They eventually discovered 263 coins, 1.5 kg of nails, shards of glass, stones, shaving blades, and a rusted iron shackle inside him.
The surgeons at Sanjay Gandhi Hospital in India then decided to operate the man and remove the foreign objects weighing about 7 kg in all.
Khan is believed to be suffering from mental health problems. Doctors said that he looks mentally unstable. His family thinks that he started to eat metal objects after developing depression.
Khan, who had been complaining of stomach pains for three months, is a three-wheeler driver who would swallow the coins given to him by customers. Relatives said that whenever he felt the urge to ingest a coin, he swallows it with water.
The nails and coins in his stomach did not initially cause any pain or problem but his condition could have gotten worse. One of the doctors who operated him said that the surgery was done just in time as some of the nails already pierced his stomach causing bleeding and loss of hemoglobin.
Khan is fortunately now out of danger but he is observed closely and his psychological problems are now being treated.
"We were shocked to discover that coins, nails and nut-bolts in his stomach. We come across such a case for the first in our career," said Priyank Sharma, who led the team that operated Khan.
Pica
The eating behavior is bizarre but it is not the first time that doctors found similar items in a person's stomach. There is, in fact, a term for this condition. The disorder is known as pica. The condition is marked by an appetite for substances that are largely non-nutritive. Some of the items that pica sufferers eat include hair, paint, paper, stones, soil, feces, glass, and metal.
In 2006, a patient at a psychiatric hospital in Pontyclun, South Wales, died after eating coins and a magnet. Dewi Evans had undergone several surgeries because of his compulsion to eat unusual objects since he was a child. Doctors found a screw, pen top, a magnet, and some coins in his stomach during his last operation.
