Surgeons Remove 263 Coins And 100 Nails From One Man’s Stomach

Surgeons in India saved the life of a man who went in complaining of abdominal pain. Doctors removed about 12 pounds of metal from the rickshaw driver’s stomach.

On November 19, a man from the Santa district in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, was admitted to Sanjay Gandhi Hospital. The 28-year-old man, named Maksood Khan had been complaining of severe abdominal pains. “He had been complaining of the pain for the last one month. After the general examination, we found that he had an infection in the abdomen and low blood pressure, he was in a critical condition,” Dr. Priyank Sharma, who led the surgery, told CNN.

Doctors would soon discover that the source of his pain was much more severe. An x-ray of  Khan’s abdominal area showed an alarming number of foreign objects in his stomach. “We had suspicions that there was something else because his family had expressed doubts that he was consuming unnatural, abnormal things. So, we did an X-ray and ultrasound of the abdomen,” he added.

Khan underwent surgery on November 24 to remove the objects, during which a laparoscope was used to find them all. “We discovered in his stomach nut bolts, chains, 263 coins and around 100 nails. The surgery took three hours to perform,” Dr. APS Gaharwal, head of the general surgery department, told CNN. “Postoperatively, he was in a critical condition for 24 hours and was on ventilator support. Now he’s out of danger but he will need some time for his stomach to recover,” said Sharma. “There are still two to three coins in his rectum that will pass naturally.”

After speaking to Kahn’s family, doctors believe that the man is suffering from some sort mental illness, such as depression. “This is a mental illness. Our psychiatry department also found that he might be in depression,” said Sharma, adding that the man would receive further treatment. He will need to undergo psychiatric evaluations so that he will not continue to ingest metal objects, such as nails. Khan is expected to fully recover without any long-term damage.