Surgeons removed 600 iron nails from the stomach of a man with a habit of swallowing strange items. Pradip Kumar Dhali’s family consulted doctors after he complained of acute abdomen pain around two months ago. To their amazement, an ultrasound scan revealed the 48-year-old had a pile of 600 iron nails lying in his stomach. He was admitted to hospital, where after two days of observation surgeons used a magnet to remove the iron nails from his stomach. Luckily, none of the sharp nails pierced his stomach. See photos below
Dr Siddhartha Biswas, who led the medical team at Calcutta Medical College and Hospital in India, said: “I am a guest doctor at the local clinic in Dhali’s village.
“Last month his family had brought the ultrasound report to us. I was shocked to find nails in his abdomen.
“We decided to operate on him. It was risky as his stomach had become abnormally big and was completely filled with nails. But luckily it did not pierce the stomach.
“We partially cut his stomach and used a magnet to bring out the nails one by one. There were more than 600 nails inside. It was made sure that all the nails he swallowed, were taken out.”
Pradip, a schizophrenic patient, has a bizarre habit of eating inedible items, but his family were shocked to discover he had swallowed the nails. Dr Biswas said:
“The family was asked by Pradip’s psychiatrist to not disturb him so they did not bother much what he was binging on. They had no clue from where he could arrange nails.”
