Doctors take out 639 nails from man’s stomach in Kolkata

The doctor said the surgery lasted for about an hour and 45 minutes and was done by making a 10 cm incision in the amdoment and removing the nails using a magnet. (Source: Thinkstock Images)

We have seen medical miracles in the past like, for instance, when doctors in Saudi Arabia found a bulb in a patient’s stomach after ten years. Yes, if that made you miss a heart-beat or two, then we’d say, brace yourself a little. Doctors in state-run Calcutta Medical College and Hospital removed 639 nails, weighing over a kilogram, from the stomach of a 48-year-old man suffering from schizophrenia. “The patient is from North 24 Parganas district’s Gobardanga. He was suffering from schizophrenia and had swallowed nails and soil regularly over a period of time,” said Dr Siddhartha Biswas, who conducted the operation on October 30, according to PTI.

The doctor said the surgery lasted for about an hour and 45 minutes and was done by making a 10 cm incision in the abdomen and removing the nails using a magnet. Dr Biswas said they had also extracted soil from the patient’s stomach. The man was complaining of pain in his stomach ever since the last week of September. He was then taken to a private nursing home, the X-ray examinations where revealed the presence of nails in his body. He was taken to Calcutta Medical College and Hospital, where further tests and scans revealed that the nails were around 2 to 2.5 inches long. Commenting further on his current condition, Dr Biswas said the patient is in a stable state now. “We are keeping him under observation before he is given a fitness certificate,” he said.