Knife-eater driven by spiritualism
NEW DELHI: An Indian policeman who spent two months swallowing knives and had 40 of them surgically removed said yesterday that “spiritual powers” made him do it.
The father of two underwent a successful five-hour operation to remove the knives from his stomach in the northern city of Amritsar after complaining to doctors of severe abdomen pain.
“I don’t know why I did it but there was some spiritual power behind it,” the 42-year-old said from Amritsar in Punjab state, declining to be named.
“It started in June when I swallowed the first knife and I enjoyed the feeling. It soon became a habit,” he said.
Doctors said they initially thought he was suffering from a tumour after body scans showed a large solid mass.
But on further investigation, they discovered dozens of folding knives with metal and wooden handles and measuring up to 18cm unfolded.
“We immediately prepared him for surgery and removed the knives. There was bleeding as some of them were unfolded,” Rajinder Rajan, one of the surgeons at Corporate Hospital, said.
Mr Rajan said he suspected the patient, who told doctors he passed two more knives in his stools, was suffering from depression.
Jatinder Malhotra, who assisted during the operation, said the man, who works as a police constable, was apparently suffering from a psychiatric disorder and is now being counselled.
Mr Malhotra said he had never before heard of a case of a person swallowing knives.
“In my 20-year career, and in all the medical literature that we checked, there has never been a case like this one, where a person has swallowed not one, but 40 knives,” said Mr Malhotra, who works at Corporate Hospital.
The man said he would not do it again.
“I consumed a knife a day for about two months.
“I never felt it was going to harm me but when it pained, I came to the hospital. I will not repeat it.”
Since the surgery, the man has told doctors that he can’t bear to look at another knife.
“He even asked his wife to get out of the room when she was cutting some fruit for him,” Mr Malhotra said.