Egypt: Doctors Extract Spoons, Forks, Toothbrushes And Jewelries From Patient's Belly

Latest and weirdest medical case just happened in Egypt a few days ago. Where team of doctors and surgeons managed to extract over 20 pieces of solid objects from a patient’s belly. The pieces varied from spoons, forks and other kitchen tools beside some toothbrushes and even some pieces of golden jewelries.

Weird Medical Case:

How did that happened? surgeons and the medical team at Mansoura medical school ,which is considered one of the highly reputable schools at Mansoura university and among all the Egyptian medical Schools, reported that incidence; a medical examinations revealed that a young man with the age of 20 years old, and suffers from “cerebral atrophy” swallowed a collection of eating utensils inside his gastrointestinal tract, and that was the reason behind his severe and continuous abdominal aches. The patient arrived to the hospital, he was suffering unbearable abdominal pain, the doctor examined him using abdominal sonar then laparoscopy and they found out some foreign bodies inside his gastrointestinal tract so the patient had to undergo a surgery to deal with his serious and dangerous condition, and to extract all those foreign bodies.. The surgery lasted for 2 hours and the patient was released from the O.R. stable and under medical observation.

The Mother Comment:

The patient’s mother said that her son has been suffering from cerebral atrophy since he was a child. She has been noticing the disappearance of her jewelry, she was looking for the ring and the golden chains that were extracted from her son’s belly during the operation, and she realized that there were missing stuff from the house as well, but she never doubted her son, and she never could believe he was able to swallow all that.

Uncommon Medical Condition:

There is a medical condition called “foreign body ingestion” it is more common in troubled children; especially swallowing small items like metallic coins.

The symptoms, the complications and the severity of the case depends on many factors:

1- Number and size of the swallowed object, small or rounded items could pass without causing any sign of complications through the entire digestive system. The larger the object the more complicated the condition as it might cause obstruction in any part of the gastrointestinal tract and it requires surgery to be extracted.

2- The object location inside the digestive system whether inside the esophagus, stomach, small, large intestine or the rectum. In most cases the object stays for 6 days but it varies from one condition to another. As the discussed conditions the objects stayed inside the patient for over 6 months.

3- The nature of the object itself, it’s more dangerous if it is toxic, chemical or with sharp ages like toothpicks, knives or forks like the Egyptian patient, in this case quick medical intervention should be taken.

Foreign body ingestion is uncommon medical condition and isn’t common among adults. It is strictly related to mental disorder as mentioned above in the case of the Egyptian patient.

Reasons For Swallowing Non-Food Items:

Foreign body ingestion especially in adults is a sign for:

• Traumatic brain damage.
  
  
• Mental retardation.
  
  
• Impulse control disorder.
  
  
• Cerebral atrophy.