AN INDIAN MAN SWALLOWS 40 KNIVES — AND LIVES
Indian surgeons were stunned when they operated on a 42-year-old police officer complaining of stomach pain and found a huge cache of knives. As FRED BARTOSH reports, he may be a victim of a bizarre eating disorder. ‘IT’S AMAZING’
When a patient shows up at a hospital with severe abdominal pain and ultrasound reveals a mass in his stomach, it’s only logical to think first of a tumour, perhaps cancer. Instead, a patient at Amritsar Corporate Hospital in India had 28 pocket knives in his stomach, each about 20 centimetres long. “In 20 years, I’ve never seen such a patient. I was amazed,” said Jatinder Malholtra, the chief surgeon.
28 — OR IS IT 40?
“We asked the patient whether he had consumed these knives in a few days or a few months,” said Malholtra. “He said he had taken 28 in number in the last two months.” The scan did indeed show 28 knives. A team of five surgeons found exactly 28 knives, just like he said. They did another scan and found another 12, bringing the total to 40.
LIFE AT RISK
Some of the knives were folded up, some were not. Their blades exposed, the 42-year-old police officer was bleeding profusely, said Malholtra. He could not have survived much longer.
WHY DO IT?
The man simply said: “I have made my mind to take the knives. I don’t know why. Impulse. They were taken on impulse only.” A condition called Pica “is characterized by the repeated eating of non-nutritive substances over a period of one month or longer. “Patients may eat nonedible objects such as paint, plaster, dirt, ice, or laundry starch,” according to WebMD.
LESSON LEARNED
The man told the surgeons: “I will not do it in the future.”