DOCTORS REMOVE 40 KNIVES FROM A MAN'S STOMACH IN INDIA

                             

Doctors in India have surgically removed 40 knives from the stomach of a man who swallowed them within two months.

"He had a wild urge to consume metal. Even for us, the experienced surgeons, it was frightening," Dr. Jatinder Malhotra told CNN.

"This was very unnerving, not witnessed something like this in my career as a doctor," Malhotra said. Singh sought medical attention after saying he had stomach pain and a low appetite, he is now in stable condition.

The doctors did not have information about Singh's diagnosis at first. Malhotra said the ultrasound showed a solid object that was in the shape of a cancer.

"To ensure that there are no knives left, we did a metallic scan. What is astonishing is the fact is that the patient was eating the knives for the last two months," Malhotra said.

Singh had told the doctors that he swallowed 28 knives but 40 were removed.

Malhotra said the surgery team found foldable knives, which when fully extended were about seven inches long.

"He [the patient] says he swallowed some knives folded, and some unfolded. When we took out the knives -- some were found folded, some were open, and some had even started rusting and were broken," Malhotra said.

The patient, a 42-year-old father of two, told CNN he's feeling much better.

He told doctors that he has no idea why he started eating knives but that he developed a taste for metal and loved the way blades tasted.

Malhotra believes the patient has a very rare mental disorder that most likely has not been published in any international medical journal.

The patient is under the continuous supervision of the hospital's in-house psychiatric team and will soon be visited by independent mental health experts, doctors said.

Malhotra said it took his team about two days to form a diagnosis and surgery plan.

"We were so nervous... a small mistake could have taken the patient's life. In my 20 years of practice, I have never seen anything like it," he said.

The risky operation was conducted recently at The Corporate Hospital in the Sikh holy city of Amritsar in northwestern India, by a team of five doctors.


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