Nail biter: Hundreds of metal objects removed from Indian man’s stomach
Ever felt hungry so much you’d eat a nail or a coin? One Indian man definitely did, as astonished surgeons discovered around seven kilograms of inedible metal items inside his abdomen after he complained of a stomach-ache.
Having suffered from stomach pains for three months, the 35-year-old man had been admitted to the Satna hospital in the Indian state of Mathya Pradesh, as the Independent reports. Doctors first suspected food poisoning until carrying out an endoscopy – only to discover a trove of metal objects inside.
Named as Maksud Khan, the man reportedly gulped down hundreds of coins, 1.5 kg of nails, shaving blades, glass shards, stones and a 15-centimeter piece of rusted iron shackle. “We were shocked to discover coins, nails and nut-bolts in his stomach. We come across such a case for the first time in our career,” said Dr Priyank Sharma, who led the surgical team, which removed a total of seven kilograms of assorted junk.
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Unfortunately for the man, he did not have the matter-ingestion superpower of certain comic-book heroes. The surgery came “in the nick of the time as some of the nails lodged had pierced his stomach, caused bleeding and resulting in loss of haemoglobin,” the Independent quoted another doctor as saying.
While the mental health of the man has been questioned, he may well have suffered from severe depression, doctors say. “Usually, people start eating abnormal things under certain psychological conditions. He had been eating metal for a year but did not tell anyone,” Dr. A.P.S. Geharwar told Times of India. Khan has worked as a three-wheeled rickshaw driver and used to swallow coins his customers gave to him, the doctors said, adding that he had promised not to indulge his bizarre cravings again.
This is not the first time Indian surgeons have extracted a handful of objects from a person’s gut. In 2015, a farmer from Punjab state had dozens of coins, nails, nuts, bolts and batteries removed from his stomach after developing the habit of eating them due to depression.
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